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Kids reaching out to kids (tissue alert) (Original Post) madamesilverspurs Feb 2018 OP
More of the story - DURHAM D Feb 2018 #1
Beautiful sheshe2 Feb 2018 #2
Very beautiful.. Upthevibe Feb 2018 #3

DURHAM D

(32,595 posts)
1. More of the story -
Sun Feb 25, 2018, 10:44 PM
Feb 2018
http://www.hutchnews.com/news/20180224/song-of-solidarity

Song of solidarity

BUHLER - Heather Cummins Weese is the mother of a Margory Stoneman Douglas High School student evacuated to the Walmart parking lot after shooter Nikolas Cruz launched a deadly attack Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida.

He didn’t see and hear the shots because of where he was on the campus, she said. She is grateful for that.

Through social media, she saw a video of high school students half a country away, singing in support of the students and families at Douglas. She is grateful for that, too.

“It was absolutely beautiful,” Weese told The News Friday. “Please tell all those beautiful children that we honestly, truly appreciate everything.”

Buhler High School sophomore Adaylia Powers, distraught by the shooting that left 17 dead, told Buhler High choir director Greg Bontrager the morning after the attack that she wanted to do something. She said the only thing she knew how to do was sing, Bontrager recalled.

Securing the go-ahead from Principal Michael Ellegood for the singers to get out of part of their fifth-hour class, Bontrager had freshmen and sophomores making up Buhler Crusader Singers and the juniors and seniors in Buhler Singers, gather in the basement tornado shelter. The accoutics are particularly good there, he said.

The students stood in a circle, clasping hands. “I think that was what just felt right,” said senior Jared Shuff.

Since the 1990s, Bontrager has taught students “This I Pray,” written by a friend, Kelson Graber. The students sing it at the first of the year and then in the spring, as a blessing to graduating seniors, he said.

Bontrager recorded the students as they sang, acapella. The students appear as they normally dress. For some students, that’s shorts, even if it is winter.

The song was to show high school kids sending a blessing to another high school, Bontrager said. It was a message of solidarity, Shuff said.

They appeared intent.

“We were trying to be strong for them,” Shuff said. Once the video ended, it was a different scene. “Pretty much a lot of people lost it, emotion-wise. There was a lot of group-hugging and crying going on afterward.”

Bontrager thought the story of Powers was important and he wanted the genesis of the performance to be attached to the posting of the video on social media. “We just wanted it to reach Douglas,” Bontrager said. In a couple of hours, the video hit Douglas. It spread across the country and went international. Bontrager’s Facebook post has had about 80,000 hits, and Twitter feed hits were about 670,000, he said Friday.

Weese said someone had shared it with her, and she thought she had shared it as well.

“It makes us have a larger voice,” Weese said and helps ensure that people listen.

“The outreach from everyone all over the world - it just warms my heart,” she said.



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