Storm-stayed Manitoba band students receive warm welcome in small-town Sask.
CBC
While the melting snow has many people in Saskatchewan and Manitoba forgetting last week's spring storm, the weather led to dozens of small-town students getting memories that will last a lifetime.
On Thursday, a group of Oakbank, Man., high schoolers heading home from a band trip in Alberta pulled into Craik, Sask., located halfway between Regina and Saskatoon, after their charter bus fishtailed on the ice-covered Highway 11.
"It was a harrowing moment and we decided that we had to get off the roads," said Greg Crowe, the band teacher at Oakbank's Springfield Collegiate.
The bus, carrying four chaperones and 47 students, drove into town around 8 a.m. CST.
Shortly after, Craik Mayor Mark Wegner pulled up and offered them a place to hunker down in the local school's gymnasium.
"Craik's slogan is the friendliest place by a dam site, so I would like to think that anyone would have stopped to ask if they needed help," Wegner said, noting he just so happened to notice the bus pull up on Main Street while having coffee at the nearby rink.
Wegner said Springfield's vice-principal got in touch with the principal of Craik School and they began coming up with a plan.
The local grocery store and a restaurant donated food, while community members pitched in bedding and toiletries.
"It was above and beyond anything anyone could have imagined," Crowe said.
"If there was anything we could have required, it was on its way. All we had to do was ask. It was unbelievable the amount of support they gave to a bus full of strangers."
Charla Edwards, the principal of Craik School, said she didn't think twice about lending a hand.
"There's no other option. You make it work because that's what you do. That's how I was raised and that's how our communities work," she said.
"I would never even think that you could turn somebody away. That didn't cross my mind."
To reciprocate the warm welcome, the Springfield students put on a few concerts for the community, helped tutor some elementary kids and gave them instrument demonstrations.
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