‘It’s a time for love’: Vigil held in honour boy killed in crash in St. Thomas, Ont

People in red shirts gathered on Monday evening in St. Thomas on what would have been Curtis Aiden’s 12th birthday. The boy was killed last week by an allegedly impaired driver.

Hundreds of red balloons line houses across St. Thomas, Ont., as residents from across the city rallied together Monday night during a vigil in memory of Aiden Curtis.

A growing crowd of red shirts gathered at the site of the fatal crash at Talbot Street and Caso Crossing around 7:30 p.m., on the evening of what would have been Curtis’s 12th birthday.

“It was a birthday that I didn’t know I was going to be celebrating one week ago, and until last week, none of us thought we’d be celebrating this child’s life together,” said Karen Vecchio, the member of Parliament for Elgin—Middlesex—London, during Monday’s vigil.

“But it’s because of a tragic accident that we’re all here together as a community to support Aiden’s family at a time when they need us most.”

Jennifer Vander-Berghe, the organizer of the vigil, said that “it was a 24-hour turnaround to bring this event together.”

She told Global News that to see the community come together to provide support on such short notice was nothing short of “amazing.”

“The family needs all the support that they can get during this time, and I am so proud to live in a community that rallied around a family in 24 hours to come out and do a candlelight vigil,” she said.