Latest news with #memorial
CTV News
an hour ago
- General
- CTV News
Thousands take part in Gaudreau Family 5K walk and run in honour of brothers John and Matthew
Hockey sticks from various vigils for hockey players Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, who were fatally struck by a motorist while riding bicycles, rest against a sign at the inaugural Gaudreau Family 5K Walk, Run and Family Day, Saturday, May 31, 2025, in Sewell, N.J. (AP Photo/Stephen Whyno)
Washington Post
an hour ago
- General
- Washington Post
New Orleans holds burial of repatriated African Americans whose skulls were used in racist research
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African American people whose skulls had been sent to Germany for racist research practices in the 19th century. On Saturday, a multifaith memorial service including a jazz funeral, one of the city's most distinct traditions, paid tribute to the humanity of those coming home to their final resting place at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial.
Associated Press
2 hours ago
- General
- Associated Press
New Orleans holds burial of repatriated African Americans whose skulls were used in racist research
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans celebrated the return and burial of the remains of 19 African American people whose skulls had been sent to Germany for racist research practices in the 19th century. On Saturday, a multifaith memorial service including a jazz funeral, one of the city's most distinct traditions, paid tribute to the humanity of those coming home to their final resting place at the Hurricane Katrina Memorial. 'We ironically know these 19 because of the horrific thing that happened to them after their death, the desecration of their bodies,' said Monique Guillory, president of Dillard University, a historically Black private liberal arts college, which spearheaded the receipt of the remains on behalf of the city. 'This is actually an opportunity for us to recognize and commemorate the humanity of all of these individuals who would have been denied, you know, such a respectful send-off and final burial.' The 19 people are all believed to have passed away from natural causes between 1871 and 1872 at Charity Hospital, which served people of all races and classes in New Orleans during the height of white supremacist oppression in the 1800s. The hospital shuttered following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The remains sat in 19 wooden boxes in the university's chapel during a service Saturday that also included music from the Kumbuka African Drum and Dance Collective. A New Orleans physician provided the skulls of the 19 people to a German researcher engaged phrenological studies — the debunked belief that a person's skull could determine innate racial characteristics. 'All kinds of experiments were done on Black bodies living and dead,' said Dr. Eva Baham, a historian who led Dillard University's efforts to repatriate the individuals' remains. 'People who had no agency over themselves.' In 2023, the University of Leipzig in Germany reached out to the City of New Orleans to find a way to return the remains, Guillory said. The University of Leipzig did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 'It is a demonstration of our own morality here in New Orleans and in Leipzig with the professors there who wanted to do something to restore the dignity of these people,' Baham said. Dillard University researchers say more digging remains to be done, including to try and track down possible descendants. They believe it is likely that some of the people had been recently freed from slavery. 'These were really poor, indigent people in the end of the 19th century, but ... they had names, they had addresses, they walked the streets of the city that we love,' Guillory said. 'We all deserve a recognition of our humanity and the value of our lives.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE My war hero brother died for his country... then petty bureaucrats branded him a nuisance
Kendall Rasmusson was just 23 years old when she was forced to watch her younger brother die in a Canadian hospital on May 15, 2008. On May 1, Sgt. John Kyle Daggett, a 21-year-old Airborne Army Ranger, was struck with a rocket propelled grenade while fighting in Baghdad, Iraq. This kicked off the most nightmarish two weeks of Rasmusson's life. By May 3, her family arrived in Halifax to be by Daggett's side. Rasmusson told that her brother 'was fighting so hard to heal and get better'. But ultimately, despite him being a strong, healthy young man, his injuries were just too severe, causing him fall into septic shock. 'As soon as he got septic, you could see his wounds were seeping, and then his kidney function went down,' she said. 'My mom was like, "he's not going to want to live like this," so she just let him pass away. And it was a lot. It was a lot.' Rasmusson had her hand on his chest as he slipped away, telling she 'literally felt his heart stop beating.' Ever since that day, she has had a new, more profound respect for the armed forces and the sacrifices they make on the battlefield. It also began her years-long tradition of putting up a magnetic banner on her garage door depicting Daggett in full uniform. She ran into no issues doing this until she moved to a community with an homeowner's association. Seventeen years after her brother's death, Rasmusson was told by her HOA that she needed to take down this harmless display remembering her brother. In their May 7 letter to her, as seen by they described the banner as a 'nuisance.' Since April 2017, Rasmusson and her three kids have lived in a single-family home in Surprise, Arizona, a suburban community northwest of Phoenix. The Desert Oasis HOA Board first told her to take the banner down in April 2018, classifying it as a holiday decoration that couldn't be left up year round. Rasmusson was fined numerous times for refusing to take it down, totaling to $200. She struck back by speaking to the local news and launching an online petition calling the HOA out. After the petition racked up thousands of signatures, the HOA board relented in January 2019, a little less than a year after it first sent her a violation notice. Ever since then, she has been allowed to display it continuously from the day Daggett died, May 15, up until July 14. This covered Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day. She was also given permission to keep the banner up three days before and 10 days after Veteran's Day, Daggett's birthday and Patriot's Day. After getting this concession, Rasmusson never imagined that she'd again have to explain herself to this exacting HOA leadership. That all changed when the HOA got rid of its old management company in favor of Trestle Management Group in November 2024. Pictured: The letter that was sent to Rasmusson on May 7 instructing her to take down the banner of her brother because it qualified as a 'nuisance' under the HOA's rules These companies typically serve at the pleasure of HOA boards and are the ones to enforce the often draconian rules they impose on homeowners. On May 7, Trestle's Jennifer Jahn sent the Rasmusson family a letter telling them that the banner of Daggett violated an HOA regulation on property nuisances. The letter compared the display to dead plants, rubbish and debris. It was also deemed to be 'unsightly.' Again, Rasmusson felt she had no choice but to go to the local news, this time giving an interview with AZFamily. This prompted a torrent of backlash against the HOA board and Trestle on social media, so much so that the Trestle President Jim Baska sent out a letter to the entire community addressing the controversy. In it, Baska claimed he didn't know about the prior HOA management company allowing Rasmusson to put up the banner during certain times of the year. He also said his company's software for mistakenly categorizing the banner as a nuisance, an excuse that rang particularly hollow for Rasmusson. She said Baska's letter seeking to was a 'sorry excuse' for an apology and called it 'weak.' 'Regardless of how your software coded this, it literally says it's a nuisance and you sent it out anyway. Anyone with like a heart would be like, "this is a memorial decoration for her brother, and we're calling it a nuisance, and we're just going to be okay with sending that out and not think that she's going to be offended by that?"' She was also outraged that Trestle demanded she take down the banner in May, after it had been up for months without issue. 'And then also to send it out on May 7. It's the month of Memorial Day, like why May? Why did you wait to tell me?' she asked. Rasmusson pointed out that Trestle manages 310 communities and over 60,000 homes in the Phoenix area. The company also has more than 80 employees, which made her wonder why no one could have just called her, instead of sending her a 'heartless' letter. Eventually, Baska did call her on the phone and she said he tried to shift blame to the HOA board. She said Baska told her that the HOA board hired Trestle because the previous management company had become 'lackadaisical on handing out violation letters.' According to Rasmusson, Baska said the board told him to 'go overboard and ramp up sending out violations.' Those violations, of course, are paired with fines that the homeowners have to pay. 'The homeowners in our neighborhood are very upset,' Rasmusson said, explaining that people are being 'nitpicked' for things like their grass being slightly too high and having the wrong type of bench in their yard. 'It's getting wild.' Two days after Rasmusson got the letter calling her brother's banner a 'nuisance,' someone created a petition calling for the removal of HOA President C.C. Hunziker. The petition, which so far has 637 verified signatures, accuses Hunziker of abusing her power and misusing HOA funds. When reached out to Hunziker for comment, she said she was 'not interested' in giving a response. Rasmusson said she didn't want to be in the news or have to get into a brawl with her HOA over what she feels is a simple, inoffensive expression of her love for her late brother. 'I do not back down for anything, so I'm gonna keep fighting if I feel like I have the right to do so, or if I can work something out where I can have it up. And I'm glad that they agreed to it, but even if they hadn't, I would have still put it up,' she said. 'I pay my HOA dues every month on time, so they can just keep racking up the fees if they want to. I'm gonna put it up because I want to, and I like doing it. 'I am proud of him, and I want everybody to know that I radiate an overjoyment of pride for him, what we went through together as a family with his sacrifice and how much he meant to our family.' Rasmusson's initial motivation in putting up the banner was the anger and 'intense grief' she was feeling after losing Daggett in such a horrific way. 'The blast tore up his shoulder. His back, his shoulder and part of the back bicep area of his right arm looked like he got bit by a shark,' she said. After he was injured in Baghdad, Daggett was rushed to Germany, where doctors removed his right eye and the right frontal lobe of his brain. They also placed what's called an external vascular drain, which helps decrease cerebral spinal fluid that the brain produces. The intricate system of tubing relieves pressure those fluids exert on the brain. Too much pressure can cause brain damage, seizures, strokes or death. While Daggett was en route to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the pressure on Daggett's brain dramatically worsened, forcing the plane transporting him to land in Halifax, Canada. Even though he didn't make it, Rasmusson counts herself as lucky that she got to see him before he died. 'A lot of people don't have that when they lose their soldier, they don't get to be with them and to help take care of them. And it meant so much to me,' she said. Her banner honoring Daggett often attracts veterans and ordinary citizens who thank her for her brother's service and want to get to know his story. 'It's just nice. It brings this military community together more. I think because all the men and women that serve, they all have people that they lost too,' she said. 'The military community is smaller than our entire community nationwide, and I feel like sometimes, a lot of their grief and loss and PTSD and their trauma that they went through while serving gets completely overlooked, ignored and forgotten,' she added. 'I'm a huge supporter of continuing to raise that awareness.' She continued: 'I think my biggest point was to just show everybody how proud I was of him, but then to also make a statement of our military families are here. We're all present. And it was just to recognize everybody and raise public awareness.' Rasmusson said Daggett's fellow soldiers 'looked up to him and looked to him for direction.' 'Even his higher ups and all the leaders were like, 'your brother was the spearhead of our unit,' she said. 'He was a leader. He took the younger guys under his wing. He taught them things. He worked with them. He had incredible patience with these guys, but he was funny and wild and such a goofball. Everybody loved him. It was just a big loss, so I hoped to display all of that in my sign.' Not only was Daggett considered a leader in his unit, he also did something practically no soldiers his age are capable of. He graduated the 62-day course to become a US Army Ranger at just age 20. 'That is insanely young for most Rangers. They're typically in their mid to late twenties,' she said. The Rangers, also known as the 75th Ranger Regiment, are an elite fighting force within the army frequently tasked with conducting dangerous special operations missions in enemy territory. 'I had other buddies of mine that were in the service with my brother,' she said. 'No matter how hard these men worked to get the standards met to even qualify for Ranger training, it took them years and years and years. And he did it at such a young age.' At his graduation from Ranger School on May 7, 2007, Daggett gave his sister the honor of pinning his Ranger tabs to his uniform. After his death, the army renamed the headquarters at Camp Taji after Daggett. Camp Taji was the military installation he was based at throughout his tour in Iraq. Daggett posthumously received the Bronze Star, a military decoration awarded to soldiers who have committed acts of heroism on the battlefield. He was also bestowed with a Purple Heart, a honor reserved for service members who have been wounded or killed in battle. And still, he inspires his older sister to keep fighting for what she believes in. 'I fight because you fought. I fight because you paid the ultimate sacrifice. I keep going,' Rasmusson said.
Globe and Mail
10 hours ago
- General
- Globe and Mail
Walkerton, Ont., shattered after teen athletes, teacher killed in crash on way home from softball tournament
One week after a crash took the lives of four teenage girls and a teacher from Walkerton District Community School as they travelled home from a softball tournament, family and friends in shattered disbelief are preparing to memorialize them in services this weekend. Danica Baker and Olivia Rourke will be remembered together Saturday on the arena floor of the Walkerton Community Centre. Later that day, a celebration of life for Kaydance Ford will take place at a baseball diamond in nearby Chesley, Ont. On Sunday, a service will be held for Rowan McLeod at the Chesley Arena. There will also be a ceremony in Owen Sound for 33-year-old teacher Matthew Eckert – also well known for his local lacrosse career – after two days of visitations at a funeral home. It's an overwhelming wave of memorials after days of mourning. A candlelight vigil outside the K-12 school drew hundreds earlier this week. Bouquets of flowers remain piled at the front doors of the school, and school busses have small blue ribbons on their front grills. Grief counsellors are on hand across the region. The school's Riverhawks logo – now wrapped in a heart – is displayed at some businesses. Flags are at half-mast. Residents have placed sneakers or baseball cleats on their doorsteps. The Walkerton Pentecostal Church displayed a message of support. The five victims were returning from a softball tournament in Dorchester, Ont., last Friday afternoon when the vehicle they were travelling in collided with a transport truck and another SUV outside London, some two hours south of Walkerton. Those in the other vehicles suffered minor injuries. The OPP is still investigating. The loss of these four female athletes – ages 16 and 17 – and the popular teacher is felt widely across the region, largely because they participated in many different activities, inside and outside school. Athletes and families from three area minor sports clubs that also had some of the girls as members all came together at a community centre this week – Kilsyth Young Guns Broomball, Tara Minor Softball, and Township of Chatsworth & District Minor Hockey Association. 'It was very cathartic,' said Ejaye McComb, a coach from the Tara Twins U18 softball team, which included Ms. McLeod and Ford. Both girls could play in the infield, the outfield and were solid hitters. Ford and Ms. McLeod were leaders, fun to be around, always joking and lightening the team's mood. 'As a coach or a teammate you couldn't ask for more. They both had a long future ahead of them as players and likely future coaches,' Mr. McComb said. 'I'm positive that they would have succeeded at anything that they tried in life.' On top of sports, and being a loving big sister, Ford, 16, also excelled in shop at school. Ms. McLeod, 17, also played hockey, broomball, and was a summer camp leader. She spearheaded the softball team's plans to order jackets, researching all the costs and making the arrangements. 'This doesn't feel real. I feel like they are on vacation right now, but I think this weekend will make it feel real to me, that they're not coming back,' said 16-year-old Addison Teeter, a Twins softball teammate of Ms. McLeod and Ford, who also forged a close friendship with Ms. McLeod as hockey teammates. She'd met all four girls over the years. 'You always hear about this stuff in the news, but you never think it's gonna happen to you. These girls touched so many people, whether you knew them from sports or parties. You realize your life is precious and you only get to live once, so you have to live it to the fullest.' Ms. Rourke, 17, was living out many passions. After growing up a gymnast at Hanover Aerials Gymnastics Club she transitioned into coaching kids there. 'There was just so much potential in her. She was so responsible,' said Brenda Jolly, the club's executive director. 'It means something to a little kid when the coach smiles at them or tells them they're doing a good job. She was very good at that.' Ms. Rourke was organizing a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, inspired by her mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Her community is making sure the June tournament to raise funds for breast cancer research will proceed as the teenager had envisioned. Danica Baker's volleyball club team has been celebrating her this week. Bluewater U17G Ballistix Boom has been posting photos and memories of the player they called Dani in her No. 11 jersey. 'Described by those who know her as, 'a true ray of light,' Danica's spirit lit up every room and every volleyball court she stepped on to. Words cannot express how saddened we are for the loss of this wonderful soul,' read their Instagram post. Meanwhile in Owen Sound, the Jr. B Northstars lacrosse team has dedicated the rest of its season to its assistant coach, saying Mr. Eckert 'cared about our group more than words can describe.' The team has asked supporters to pack its Saturday game and wear Northstars jerseys in support of Mr. Eckert. He made a name for himself playing hockey and lacrosse in Owen Sound. In 2012, he won a Minto Cup, the Canadian Lacrosse Association's Junior A championship. He became a popular teacher, known for using his extra time to help kids. 'As a dedicated teacher and coach, Mat poured his energy, time, and enormous heart into shaping young lives,' reads his obituary. 'His math lessons were more than just numbers – they were moments of connection. In every sport he took on, he brought the same passion and purpose, using coaching as another way to teach life skills, build confidence, and foster teamwork.'
