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Vol. 18, No. 2, Wednesday, November 30, 2022 www.LamontLeader.com
Commemorations of Chipman and Lamont Bus/Train monuments, victims remembered BY JANA SEMENIUK More than 100 people gathered at the St. John’s Russo Greek Orthodox Church in Chipman Nov. 27 to attend a special memorial service commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the Lamont-Chipman Bus/Train accident where 17 high school students lost their lives in 1960. At St. John’s Russo, Father Alexios Surayev led Sunday’s memorial service acknowledging the tragedy. “One of the worst things (we have to deal with) is to bury our own kids. Wantwhat to include your business in Nobody expected happened. Shop Local for the remainder 2 weeks? When kids left home, they wanted to Call The Lamont Leader @ 780.895.2780 get to school and they never came or email Crystal @ lmtleader@gmail.com back,” he said. “It is very nice to see how many people did show up (today) and I think it is important to keep this Josie Herchek (L) stands beside her daughter while placing a rose in the vase for her brother 16-year-old Wayne Zapotichny, who was killed in the 1960 bus accicommemoration going.” Once the service concluded, friends, dent. Photo: Jana Semeniuk family and community members gathered around the newly installed memo- talked about it,” he said. Hrehorets uments; one for Chipman where most rial by the Chipman National Hall to added that several years ago he walked of the students lived, and one for place battery operated candles on it as over to an existing monument, which Lamont where the accident occurred. well as add a rose to the vases for each he thought was for the bus victims, and Additionally, the memorial committee discovered it was for the Queen’s visit lost one of its members this past spring life lost. An identical commemoration of the in 1978. He said it made him realize when Ellen Sledz, who was also a surLamont memorial happened after a sit- that a proper monument needed to be vivor of the bus train accident, passed away from cancer down lunch at the National Hall. erected. April 9. “I decided one Although temperatures hovered Meanwhile, Kent morning, I came to around -3 for the afternoon, a bitter Harrold, chair of the work, and I said it's wind made it feel below -10 causing hospital board, also time to start a comattendees to shiver and huddle, trying spoke to the crowd, mittee and we're to keep warm while they stood silently sharing history of, remembering the children who passed going to go ahead what was then the and start this memoaway. Lamont Archer A program was followed inside the rial for all the stuMemorial Hospital. dents,” he said. “In hall, where Memorial Committee Chair He said that the hosTom Hrehorets addressed the crowd of the back of my mind pital participated in and in my heart, I more than 140. an exercise of Civil knew this had to be Hrehorets shared his story of being Defence three years done.” fascinated with school buses as a child before the bus acciWithin seven and how he eventually became a bus dent happened, months in 2021, the driver. He said he was reminded of the where high school nine-member comaccident regularly by his father who Gloria Yanchuk gave a hug to students from mittee raised more worried about Hrehorets driving a Mae Adamyk after she spoke to the Lamont acted as victhan $95,000, allowschool bus. crowd about the painful loss of her “My dad kept saying, ‘Why do you ing them to pur- 15-year-old sister Barbara Ann in tims in a simulated mock emergency to want to drive a bus? There was that chase two nearly the 1960 bus accident. test the hospital’s identical stone monPhoto: Jana Semeniuk bad accident in Lamont’ and he always
preparedness plans. “It was a simulated exercise where they actually brought in quite a number of high school students (who were) simulated casualties and acted that way and were made up that way. And the hospital had to accommodate them,” he said. Harrold said the exercise helped the hospital three years later when a real emergency occurred. Mae Adamyk, who lost her 15-yearold sister Barbara Ann in the crash, also shared her story of repressed grief and loss in the years since Barbara passed away. She said details of the accident were kept quiet from her and her younger sister which had a profound impact on her later. “A lot of the stuff was kept away from us as children. And as it happened, we went back to the school, and it was not mentioned. Nobody said anything to us. I felt alone. We never talked about the accident,” said Adamyk. “I could honestly say that I started my grieving and my healing process at the 50th anniversary of this accident. Everybody opened up and started talking.” She also shared a personal story of her last memory with Barbara. Adamyk said she had a tough time learning at school, and one of her teachers suggested she ask her sister Barbara for help. “Barbara was smart. She wanted to be a schoolteacher,” said Adamyk. “(Barbara) spent several days (with me) I was a slow learner and (soon) I started getting the concept of equations. We did have the math test and we were going to get our results that morning (of the accident). I remember Barbara looked up at me in the school bus and she said to me, ‘I know that you got a good mark’. And she smiled and she put a thumbs up at me.” On Nov. 29, 1960, 17 high school students, 15 girls and two boys, were killed when their school bus was split in two by an oncoming freight train.