[H]undreds of students and residents from the Mad River Valley gathered in the school gym Monday night for a celebration of the life of the five teens killed in a fiery crash on Interstate 89 earlier this month.
In the two weeks since the crash, the school has been flooded by waves of support from throughout Vermont. Donations of comfort food and visits from therapy dogs have bolstered the student body, one teacher said.
The greater community continues to reel in the wake of the crash.
A few local restaurants closed Monday night in honor of the celebration. Throughout the six towns in the district, businesses and residents have put up displays of five stars wrapped in strings of lights — each representing one of the five teenagers.
A similar display, surrounded by chrysanthemums, stood at the front of the stage with a photo of each of the students: Mary Harris, Eli Brookens, Janie Chase Cozzi, Cyrus Zschau, and Liam Hale.
Before the ceremony started, Lisa Atwood, one of the school’s co-principals, commented as she watched people stream into the gym that the students who helped organize the event hoped it would be “celebratory.”
During the two-hour-long celebration, stories from friends and teachers about the five students were often punctuated with bursts of laughter.
A portion of the program was set aside for each of the five teens, with a friend or two and a teacher speaking about each. They shared memories from growing up, anecdotes from the classroom, and snippets from past homework assignments.
“I believe that it’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice,” Mary Harris wrote in an essay for a 10th-grade history class, teacher Kathy Cadwell told the crowd.
Student Lauryn Green said she and Harris, her close friend, “were two tall, brown-haired girls who were joined at the hip.”
After Harris’ death, another teacher shared with Green a recent homework assignment Harris had completed on planning her ideal day.
“The last thing on the list is something that caught my eye, and I couldn’t help but smile when reading this,” Green said. “Mary would end her ideal day with a concert full of cool artists and her closest friends.”
Green said Eli Brookens had written the same thing.
The five students were driving back from a Mike Stud concert in South Burlington the night of the crash. Green was there too, she said.
“I just wanted to let everyone know that I don’t think they could have had a better last night,” Green said. “They danced the night away, sang their hearts out, and I know they were all very, very happy.”
Friends of Brookens’ described him as an avid skier. One friend recalled ducking the rope on a trail with him, expecting “a killer pow day.” Instead, they found an extremely icy run with ski patrollers waiting at the bottom for them.
“They were pissed,” student Zinn Wolfe said, to laughter.
“There was never a dull moment while skiing with Eli, no matter how bulletproof the ice was or how cold the wind whipped,” Eli Moskowitz, another friend, said.
English teacher Jonah Ibson described Brookens’ wit and creativity in class.
“Getting to know Eli was like investigating a snowflake under a magnifying glass,” Ibson said. “The closer you looked, the more his uniqueness and inner beauty came into view with crystal clarity.”
Cyrus Zschau was remembered as a keen baseball player and a dedicated friend.
Eli Hammond remembered summers when he and Zschau were young and they visited Martha’s Vineyard. “It was in these moments when I knew I had a best friend for life,” Hammond said.
Hammond recalled when Zscahu’s dad let them mow the lawn the first time, an operation they undertook with Zschau sitting on Hammond’s lap.
“Chris and Sarah,” Hammond said, addressing Zschau’s parents, “I’m sorry for how bad your lawn looked that day. Especially the inappropriate shapes we made.”
Friends described Janie Chase Cozzi as upbeat, active and happy. Chase Cozzi grew up in the Mad River Valley and attended Harwood through middle school, before attending Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire. One friend recalled attending circus camp, paddle-boarding on Blueberry Lake, and Nordic skiing with her.
Anna Jarecki said Chase Cozzi was “the most tell-it-how-it-is person I’d ever known.”
“She’d hate to see us go through our day sad and broken, just because we think she’s not here. But she is. She’s in the wind and she’s in the river and she’s in the mountains and she’s in our hearts,” Jarecki said.
Anna Fortier described Liam Hale as a sharp-dressed lover of cars and mountain biking, with a knack for telling big stories.
“For instance, the time he came to Fayston School and told us he jumped his dirt bike over his house the previous day,” Fortier said. “Fact check: he did not do that.”
He could argue ferociously, Fortier said, but he also had a big heart. “Even when he was at his maddest, he still loved,” she said.
Kristi McKnight, a science teacher, recalled when Hale, always fashion-conscious, greeted her in the hallway at the beginning of one school year with a big hug. Then he pulled back and said, “Kristi, I’m glad to see that you’re dressing halfway decent this year.”
When she looked up at him, she said, “He already had that Liam grin across his face. And if you knew Liam, you know that shit-eating, excuse my French, grin that I’m talking about.”
After students and teachers finished speaking, Harwood alum Grace Potter performed the song, “Stars.”
As people filed out of the gym at the end of the ceremony, before a fireworks display began outside, one teen boy leaned into his friend and said quietly, “Stay strong.”
