Offering hope - and snowflakes - in a time of healing

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MADAWASKA – Sometimes, someone who has suffered through an unspeakable tragedy can relate to others afflicted by trauma and grief more than the average person. A local former teacher who lost her daughter in a car accident in 2008 felt a particular need to reach out to the students of Sandy Hook Elementary after hearing about the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012.

Judy Bouchard, a former Special Education teacher and elementary teacher, experienced great loss in April 2008 when a car accident caused by cell phone distraction killed her 24-year-old daughter Heather. Judy was a teacher at the time, but she said she needed to resign in October 2008 because it was too difficult to work with children in the wake of her daughter’s death.

When Bouchard heard of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the loss of her own child and her life’s work as a teacher caused the news to hit right at her heart.

“This really came home to me,” said Bouchard. “I had to do something.”

Bouchard said she wanted to do something that was meaningful and that came from the entire school community.

Bouchard decided to participate in the Facebook campaign titled “Snowflakes for Sandy Hook.” Soon after planning out the project, however, Bouchard discovered that Sandy Hook was turning away snowflakes, because they had warehouses full of them and were unable to accommodate future donations.

Bouchard spoke to a friend with connections to an attending student of Sandy Hook Elementary and was able to establish a donation route through the Sandy Hook student.

The snowflakes will first travel to Farmington, then to Connecticut. Once they find their way into the student’s hands, he will deliver them to his classroom.

After figuring out how to get the snowflakes into the Connecticut classroom, Bouchard visited numerous classrooms in Madawaska and helped the students design and cut out 265 snowflakes to donate to Sandy Hook students.

“They’ll get there,” said Bouchard. “Just imagine what it will look like... snowflakes hanging everywhere...it’ll be peaceful, calm and quiet.”

Bouchard is passionate about establishing a sense of peace at the school because, even though she understands loss, she said she “did not feel fear after Heather died like they must feel fear there.”

Bouchard referred to the Sandy Hook incident as an act of terror and hoped that the donation of hundreds of snowflakes will calm the students in Connecticut and assure them that they have friends and support from northern Maine.

“The whole school community did what they could,” said Bouchard. “With everything going on in our own town, it was nice to do something for someone else.”

Bouchard said she included a note along with the snowflakes that said, “Each snowflake is a hug from one of us.”

Bouchard mailed the snowflakes to their first stop in Farmington on Saturday, Jan. 5, and has yet to hear whether they arrived.

“Having lost a child, I know that the pain never ends,” said Bouchard. “I just want them to feel peace when they see the snowflakes.”