In times of tragedy people come together. When news broke of an accident involving three high school students, the community came together to support the families of the teenagers in the crash.

The three teenagers were on their way to Vala’s pumpkin patch Friday, Oct. 11. Madeline Shely, a 16-year-old sophomore at Marian, was the driver of one of the cars involved in the accident. Shely suffered a brain injury. She is at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln. She is expected to be released next week.

Carly Anne Kelly, a 15-year-old sophomore at Marian, was a passenger in the car. Kelly was upgraded from critical to serious condition last wednesday at UNMC. She was placed in medically induced coma and doctors are lowering oxygen so she can start to breath again. She suffered from multiple injuries including swelling and bleeding in the brain, collapsed lungs and several fractures.

Nate LaFave, a sophomore from Mount Michael Benedictine, died in the crash. The crash occurred a few weeks short of his 16th birthday. Shely was LaFave’s girlfriend.

This tragedy hit the students of Marian and Mount Michael hard. Both Shely and Kelly were cheerleaders at Marian. The cheerleaders from Marian made over 800 bows to sell and help raise money for the hospital bills. The bows are being sold at $5 per bow and are sold at various schools.

Former Marian cheerleader Madeline Holmes, who is now a Westside cheerleader, got the Warrior cheer squad involved with the effort. Holmes knew the girls and the boy in the accident and wanted to help.

“The idea started after the prayer service for Nate, Maddie and Carly,” Holmes said. “The Marian cheerleaders and I wanted to do something to help, but we didn’t exactly know what to do. We came up with making bows and selling them.”

The bows were selling well at Marian, so Holmes wanted to spread the bows to Westside. Holmes knew the Westside cheerleaders would help out in anyway possible. The cheerleaders at Westside started buying bows and also making them. The Westside cheerleaders then spread the word to help get more people to buy them.

“Westside [cheerleaders are] really trying to help out in any way possible, by buying bows so as much money as possible goes to pay the medical bills,” said Westside varsity cheerleader Delaney Micheels.

If you are looking to buy a bow in support of the students in the crash, find junior Madeline Holmes.

Sources: Omaha World Herald