vol. 100, no. 21 Monday, November 7, 2011 Special SECTION, 8 PAGES

Friday afternoon brought tragedy for the ACU community. A group of students who planned to spend the weekend together in Medina building playgrounds instead spent it scattered throughout four West Texas hospitals.

Not everyone on campus knows the 12 students, three faculty and one faculty spouse involved. We cannot feel the physical or emotional affliction of those who survived the accident. We cannot know the pain that penetrates the souls of Anabel Reid’s friends. But their sadness permeates our lives and our campus.

Within hours of the accident, the Beauchamp Amphitheater overflowed with more than 1,000 people who wanted to be together to pray for those hurting. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and strangers held hands and prayed for the victims and for each other. Our first instinct was to immerse ourselves in community and prayer. It felt natural.

No one who went to the amphitheater Friday night understands why our friends’ mission trip was ended by a collision with a concrete culvert. No one who spent last night waiting in a hospital lobby or by a telephone understands why so many spirits and bodies were broken. And not one of Anabel’s parents, family members or friends understands why they now are remembering a life cut short at just 19 years.

The only fragment of this tragedy we can begin to comprehend is our role in the healing process. We need to be the comfort, the encouragement and – when the time comes – the help to heal. We must offer our unassuming presence as our purest form of support.

This role is not foreign to the ACU community. In times of heartache we congregate. Wrapped in each other’s arms we get to our feet. We dry each other’s tears and turn our faces to God.

We mourn the loss of Anabel, a young woman whose character filled that comforting role so well. Friends say simply her company in a room was a calming presence. No words were necessary. No actions were needed.

Still, as we weep for Anabel, we rejoice in the 15 that are recovering. These emotions, though drastically different, saturate our campus. Our mood is heavy but hoping.

Optimist Editorial Board

Campus community provides support

Photo: Mandy Lambright

Our Heartsare Heavy

Tragedy struck as faculty, students

traveled to serve

Early Friday afternoon, a group of 12 ACU students, three faculty and one spouse from the Department of Ag-riculture and Environmental Science gathered at the Zona Luce Building to prepare for a mission trip to Medina.

Some, like Amanda Wil-son, were veterans of the trip. Others, like Jason Iris, had never been. Wilson, junior animal science ma-jor from Altaloma, Calif., was readying for her third visit to Medina’s Children’s home, where in years past, the group had volunteered.

The group began load-ing at 1:40 p.m., but the

bus never filled to capacity. Many students had called last-minute to cancel be-cause of school or work conflicts. The group prayed, and at 2 p.m. the bus de-parted, heading south with its 16 passengers.

Amanda Wilson took a seat in the second row on the right side of the bus; Iris, senior environmental science major from South-hamton, Bermuda, sat fur-ther back on the left.

Wilson said the bus was buzzing with lively con-versation and ringing with laughter.

About a hour and a half into the trip, the chattering had quieted down, and one by one, students began to doze off.

Thrown Forward

Iris sat in the row direct-ly in front of Anabel Reid, sophomore environmental sciences major from Pe-tersburg, and Tiffany Lutz, senior animal science ma-jor from Zelienople, Penn. He was reading a book and chiming in and out of oth-ers’ conversations. As he felt the bus go over a few bumps in the road, he looked up to see what was happening.

He saw the bus had drift-ed to the right and waited for it to pull back on to the road, but it did not.

Wilson was reclining in her seat with her back against the window when she felt the bus beginning to veer off the road.

She glanced out the win-dow and saw the bus head-ing for the bar ditch on the right. She didn’t worry. When she realized the bus had lost control, she assumed it would run up an embank-ment or stop in a hole at worst. It was then that she saw the concrete culvert di-rectly ahead of them.

Before the bus could re-turn to the road, it struck the culvert. The impact propelled the bus end-over-end as it careened across County Road 234. It landed on its wheels in the middle of the highway, its top shell ripped off and its rows of seats exposed. Most of the passengers lay scattered across the grassy ditch.

Iris said the last thing he

could remember was seeing the ceiling of the bus com-ing toward him and feeling as if he would not survive. He blacked out for the rest of the accident.

The force of the initial im-pact of the culvert on the bus pushed Wilson against the window behind her as the bus tilted. When the bus be-gan to roll, she flew forward onto the floor of the aisle. She grabbed onto the bars underneath seat across from her and held on tightly until the bus completed a full ro-tation and skidded to a stop.

“I just remember telling myself over and over again to stay conscious and to hold on to the seat,” Wilson said.

Assessing the Damage

Dr. Michael Nicodemus, assistant professor of agri-culture and environmental sciences, who was driving the shuttle bus, and Dr. Jim Cooke, professor of agri-culture and environmental sciences, had both worn seatbelts. After the bus had tumbled into its upright position, only they and two other students, Wilson and

Allison Dorshorst, fresh-man environmental science major from Colleyville, re-mained onboard.

“As I turned and looked behind me, I saw the bar ditch, and all through the bar ditch was all of our stuff and bodies lying everywhere,” Wilson said. “There were girls lying there in obvious pain, a lot of them not moving, and the whole top of the bus was basically torn off. The bus, the scene, it just looked like a bomb went off, everything was torn to shreds, things were thrown everywhere. It was my worst nightmare come true.”

Iris remembers waking up on the side of the road, about 10 feet from where the bus had landed. He was bleeding from his forehead and felt as if he was unable to move.

“It took me awhile to collect myself and to feel like I could stand up,” Iris said. “When I stood up and looked around, I thought it looked like a war zone. The bus was completely demolished and there was smoke and it smelled bad – like burnt rubber.”

He realized that his tooth was broken and began look-

2

Photos by Daniel Gomez Chief Photographer

Left: pieces of personal luggage and belongings lay scattered on the side of the road after the accident.

Right: The mangled front end of the bus carrying 16 ACU Department of Agriculture and Environmental Science

students and faculty members lies on the side of the road after careening into a culvert. Opposite: Members

of the Texas Department of Public Safety survey the scene of the accident.

samantha sutherlandellen smith

THE OPTIMIST • 3

ing around for it when he spotted Hayley Wilkerson, sophomore animal science major from Ravenna.

“She was like, ‘Hey man, you’re missing your tooth,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I know,” Iris said. Wilkerson had sat in front of Iris on the right side and had landed nearby after being ejected.

Iris also spotted Anna Watson, sophomore animal science major from Kerr-ville, whose leg was bleeding, and Emmett Miller, assistant professor of agriculture and environmental sciences, who was near the back of the bus sitting up and bleeding from the head. Miller asked Iris how he was doing and if he was OK. Miller’s wife, Pat Miller, was next to him and was not moving.

Wilson and Dorshorst moved away from the bus because the engine was smoking and fuel was leak-ing onto the ground. Those who could move pulled the medical kit from the vehicle and began assessing injuries as best they could, fumbling around to try and get the plastic gauze packages open and struggling with shock.

Wilson came upon Reid on the ground near Iris and Lutz.

“When I found Anabel, she was still breathing, but she had a lot of internal in-juries,” Wilson said. “She was not conscious, nor was she ever conscious from the time that the motion stopped to when she was pronounced dead, so I don’t think she experienced any pain whatsoever.”

A car traveling behind the bus stopped almost immedi-ately after the crash, and the driver dialed 911. Another ve-hicle, a bus carrying the Win-ters football team, stopped and contributed more medi-cal kits and water.

Iris saw a man with a gray shirt putting out the fire in the bus engine and another woman attending to Reid.

Crisis and Confusion

The Reynolds County first response team arrived within 15 to 20 minutes of the crash, followed by helicopters from surrounding hospitals.

The police on the scene asked everyone who could walk to move toward the fence. Medics flew those in critical condition to hospi-tals in Ballinger, San Angelo, Abilene and Dallas.

At one point, four or five helicopters were going to and from the site, landing on both sides of the bus and leaving quickly to transport the crash victims, said Wil-son. Ambulances carried those less severely injured the nine miles to Ballinger.

Wilson said the more dif-ficult task for those remain-ing on the scene was getting a firm count of those involved in the accident, because many had been removed quickly.

Initially, media reported two riders had been killed and – at times – that one student was missing.

“I think that a lot of that confusion had to do with me because I was the one telling them how many people to look for, helping them count and helping them identify people,” Wilson said. “So a lot of times they were count-ing, but sometimes they weren’t including me and sometimes they were.”

A University Responds

Dr. Phil Schubert, presi-dent of the university, said he was on campus watch-ing the championship soc-cer tournament at 4:30 p.m. when he received a call reporting an ACU bus had been involved in an acci-dent south of Ballinger.

Shortly after, Schubert was able to confirm that it was a group from the ag depart-ment heading to Medina.

Schubert and a number of other ACU officials dis-persed immediately to the area’s hospitals to be with those involved. Schubert to San Angelo, others to Ball-inger and Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene.

“It was good to get to hold their hand and talk to them and see their faces,” Schubert said from Shannon Medical Center. “We’re so thankful that they’ve been able to get the care here at this hospital, and they all seemed to be in stable condition once we

were able to visit with them.”Iris was taken to Ball-

inger Memorial Hospital along with seven others, in-cluding Wilson.

“The administration and staff from ACU who came to the hospital to get me and to talk to me have been so supportive, and I really ap-

preciate that,” Iris said.At 6:30 p.m., word went

out to the ACU community about the accident. Plans immediately took shape to conduct a prayer vigil for that night at the Beau-champ Amphitheater to pray for those involved.

Members of the admin-

istration picked up Wilson from Ballinger Hospital, and she returned to cam-pus, where she was able to attend the candlelight vigil.

“We’ve felt the power of prayer over us, our fam-ily and around the organiza-tion of everything and how smoothly it went. There were

so many things that could have gone so much worse I feel God’s blessing on that,” Wilson said. “So through it all, God is good and He has been amazing to everyone.”

graphics by ben miller, michael mccarty and david singer

contact optimist atjmcnetwork@acu.edu

The bus flipped end-over-end and landed facing south on its wheels with the body nearly removed from the frame.

The bus was traveling southbound when it drifted off the highway into the right-hand ditch and hit a concrete culvert.

The one-vehicle accident occurred about nine miles south of Ballinger at about 3:20 p.m. on U.S. Highway 83 at CR 234.

Co Rd 234U.S. 83

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Sequence of Events

Artist interpretation

A prayer vigil took place Friday evening at the Beauchamp Amphithe-ater for those who wished to ref lect on Friday’s bus crash. ACU students and community members attended to pray for all those affected.

Dr. Mark Hamilton, as-sociate dean of the Grad-uate School of Theology, led the service with songs and invited other ACU staff members to pray over the crowd.

More than 1000 people from the ACU and Abilene communities attended the outdoor service. On arriv-al, attendees were offered a candle to light and hold, though, because of the un-expectedly high number of people, organizers quickly ran out.

“There’s a fair amount of improvisation that goes on when you are trying to find the words that are best for the mo-ment,” Hamilton said. “It’s not always obvious what those should be. Most people rise to the occasion. I think the stu-dents certainly did that last night.”

Amanda Wilson, junior animal science major from Walsenburg, Colo., was in the shuttle bus at the time of the accident and spoke at the prayer vigil soon after being re-leased from Ballinger Memorial Hospital and returning to Abilene.

“You are all such an amazing community,” she said. “Your prayers and your support are so important to everybody involved in this.”

At the vigil, Hamilton read from Psalm 130 and said an occasion like this isn’t one people all want to come together for.

“We are a community” Hamilton said. “We pray together. We should be able to weep with those who weep, even if we are not affected directly,”

“That part of the Bible is very precious to me," he said. “I love the Psalms be-cause they tell the truths about human life and they do it in such beauti-ful ways. I think the heart of prayer is an interesting relationship between an adoration of God and pro-test of God.”

Hamilton said that the vigil was not a time for answers but a time for the ACU community to be to-gether, letting God take care of the “whys.”

“We shouldn’t be look-ing for quick answers or anything that can be fixed in a few days. This will take a while,” Hamil-ton said.

“Reach out when you can to the people who were in-volved and their friends and associates,” he said.

“It will take a long time to work through this for many people, and some people will carry this scar for a long time because they lost their friends and faced their own mortality in a very real way.”

Another prayer service and devotional took place at University Church of Christ Sunday night. Chapel on Monday is also planned as a time of prayer for those affected by the crash.

Anabel Reid, who friends describe as a woman with a unique passion for children and serving others, died Friday after the shuttle bus accident on U.S. Highway 83 just south of Ballinger. She was 19.

Reid was among 12 stu-dents, three faculty mem-bers and one faculty spouse who were traveling to Me-dina Children’s Home for the Department of Agricul-ture and Environmental Science’s annual service project. She is survived by her parents, Shelly and Ron Reid, and an older brother, Becton.

ACU’s Beauchamp Am-phitheatre was filled with the candlelight of hun-dreds at a vigil Friday night, when students, family and friends gathered to honor Anabel and to pray for the 15 other victims.

Anabel’s mother said her daughter was a compassion-ate leader who had a special dream to bring fresh and

sustainable water sources to villages of underdeveloped countries.

“She had a bigger heart for service than anyone I have ever known in my life,” Shelly Reid said.

Anabel Reid was born on Jan. 28, 1992, to Ron and Shelly Reid. Along with big brother Becton, the fam-ily lived in a small farming town of Petersburg just out-side Lubbock.

“I had to take her out of her crib at 10 months be-cause she kept crawling out,” Anabel’s mother said. “She was always headstrong and determined.”

She spent her early years on the farm until her family relocated to town. But after her 16th birthday, the Reid family moved back to the farm, and Anabel returned to the life she loved.

“The farm had always been her passion,” Shelly Reid said. “She loved to drive the tractor and used it for anything. She just loved the outdoors.”

A good student and well-mannered girl, Anabel did have some “wild child”

tendencies, her mother said, recalling the time when as a kindergartener, Anabel had neatly planted a whoopee cushion on her teacher’s chair.

“She was always heard – we didn’t have a choice to listen to her,” her mother said with a smile. “And we’re a loud family.”

Anabel made it her spe-cial mission to meet every child and make him or her feel welcome, Shelly said. She had a sweet spirit, be-gan each day with singing and could be found tag-ging along with big broth-er Becton, 23.

“They did everything to-gether,” Shelly said.

The two enjoyed hunt-ing, shooting, backpacking, rock climbing and riding motorcycles.

“She surpassed me in the hiking department,” said her brother, Becton, recall-ing a recent trip to Jagged Mountain and Leviathan Peak in Colorado.

Becton described Anabel as a natural-born leader who was up for anything. He recalled receiving a sur-

prising phone call from her in April.

“I went skydiving today; what have you done lately?” Anabel asked.

Becton said they were as close as any brother and sister could be. He said they even dreamed up joint busi-ness ventures.

“Anabel called me up one day and mentioned that she had found 50 donkeys she thought we should invest in,” Becton said. “She was very thorough and didn’t do anything without re-searching it first. She even wrote up a business plan and proposal.”

Becton said his business-savvy little sister also had a heart for the Lord.

“Youth group, mission trips, retreats – she never missed anything,” Bec-ton said.

Buddy Mills, former asso-ciate minister at her home-town church, Broadway Church of Christ, said she had a maturity well beyond her years.

“Everyone was just blown away by her persona,” Mills said. “Through and

through, she was just an in-credible girl.”

Mills said he remem-bers Anabel befriending his 12-year-old son when his family first arrived at Broadway.

“Nobody at church reached out to my son any

more than Anabel,” he said. “She was just iconic within the youth group.”

Her mother said even as a child, Anabel was the house-hold’s spiritual center.

“She taught us to be still and listen – seek and ye shall find,” her mother said.

Anabel enrolled at Abilene Christian Univer-sity in the fall of 2010 after working to raise the tuition money herself. Shelly said it was a dream of her daugh-ter’s, and she was proud to be at the university.

“She didn’t come to ACU to learn to serve,” Shelly said. “She came to ACU to continue to serve.”

Anabel volunteered with the non-profit organization Wishing Well and dreamed of giving the simple gift of water. She researched af-fordable and sustainable ways to implement water purification systems in underdeveloped villages overseas.

Friday’s trip to Me-dina Children’s Home with the ag department

would have been Anabel’s second time volunteer-ing with the non-profit Christian organization. Shelly said she knows her daughter would never have regretted going on the trip.

“She believed that’s what she was called to do,” her mother said, “help people and live a life of service.”

Andrew Saucedo, sopho-more bio-chemistry pre-med and Christian minis-try major from Tyler, first met Anabel at University Church of Christ and said she always seemed to know what God was saying in ev-ery situation.

“She just cared for peo-ple, and she wanted to change the world,” Saucedo said. “She was going to dig

wells in Africa and change so many peoples’ lives, but she changed so many lives here.”

Abigail Talley, sopho-more biology pre-med ma-jor from Tanzania, lived with Reid in Morris Hall, along with Rachel Easley, sophomore pre-dental ma-jor from Belton.

“She really was a godly girl,” Talley said of her childhood friend and roommate. “If you ever got stuck in the mud and were in the middle of nowhere, she’d come without even thinking.”

Talley said Anabel had a gift of encouragement. She always had a Bible verse to share and prays to offer.

“She was very mature in her faith, and she really

has been such a blessing in my life,” Talley said. “Her life will continue to make me a better person, a bet-ter Christian and a better friend.”

Donations in Anabel’s honor may be made to the Children’s Home of Lubbock at P.O. Box 2824, Lubbock, 79408. A me-morial service for Ana-bel Reid will take place at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock.

“It will be a time to sing praises, remember and cel-ebrate her life,” her mother said. “And that is absolutely what she would want.”

Beloved ACU student remembered for sweet spirit, heart of service

Anabel ‘taught us to be still

and listen’

Candlelight vigil supports victims

Christina BurchMultimedia managing editor

contact Burch at

clb10a@acu.edu

Bailey nealstaff reporter

contact neal at

bmn07a@acu.edu

Left: Anabel Reid went to Medina Children’s Home with the AES Club in 2010 to do mission work. Bottom left: Reid took a

skydiving trip in April. Below: Reid and two friends enjoyed ACU football with her friends. Right: More than 1,000 members of the ACU community flocked to the Tower of Light to pray for those affected by the bus accident

involving students and faculty members of the ACU Department of Agriculture and

Environmental Science.

THE OPTIMIST • 54

When the ACU shuttle bus veered into a ditch and crashed at an intersection near Ballinger, the students and faculty from the De-partment of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences were heading south toward Medina Children’s Home, a campus 40 miles northwest of San Antonio, for their an-nual mission trip.

Medina Children’s Home, part of the not-for-profit Christian care organi-zation Arms of Hope, assists

orphans, at-risk youth and single-mother families.

After the accident, word quickly traveled to Medina.

Kevin McDonald, presi-dent and CEO of Arms of Hope, received a call at about 4:30 p.m. from Me-dina Children’s Home cam-pus minister Tory Robert-son. Friends from Ballinger, where Robertson once served as a youth minister, had begun calling him with news of incident.

“My reaction was com-plete shock, sorrow and disappointment,” McDon-ald said.

“We had been very ex-

cited about the visit. Ev-eryone gets really excited here when the ACU group comes out. It is a real in-spiration to all of us to see young people who are so committed to helping others and making them-selves so available to those who are in need of good inf luences in their lives. And to hear that they had such fantastic plans that were interrupt-ed by such terrible trag-edy was really heartbreak for me and everyone at Medina Children’s Home and Arms of Hope.”

But news of the crash

did not just affect the or-ganization’s leaders. It soon spread to those liv-ing at the home as well. The 314-acre faculty is home to an average of 60 children at its residential group care program and 28 families in the mother/child care program.

“A lot of the children and the families that we help have been accustomed to having bad news for much of their lives,” McDonald said. “The level of disap-pointment is very notice-able among the young peo-ple who had something to be excited about.”

This would have been the department’s seventh consecutive trip to the Me-dina home with Emmett Miller, assistant professor of range and environmen-tal science.

“Without the help of vol-unteer groups coming out to help us it would be im-possible for us to take care of our affairs,” McDonald said. “We are always very grateful for the help.”

The ACU students and faculty had a full schedule of plans for their time with the charitable organiza-tion, which operates com-pletely on donations and

volunteer labor.“They were going to

help out with various tasks around our campus in-cluding helping to make repairs and improvements to some of the facilities where our children live and help us maintain some of our agricultural land,” McDonald said.

But to McDonald, the true benefit of the visit came from something more than labor.

“There are a lot of things here that go way deeper than just a group of stu-dents coming to work with some disadvantaged chil-

david singerarts editor

6

courtesy of the department of agriculture and environmental science

Students and faculty from the ag department, including Pat and Ed Miller, far right, worked at the Medina Children’s Home in 2009. This year’s group was on its way to Medina for the department’s seventh consecutive year volunteering at the home when the shuttle bus crashed Friday afternoon.

Accident shocks Medina Children’s Home

contact singer atdis08b@acu.edu

THE OPTIMIST • 7

dren,” he said. “There are a lot of relationships here.”

Students would always cook dinner on Saturday night for the campus of nearly 200. Afterwards, many would join the chil-dren and families and play basketball or do crafts.

“It was that time that was most treasure by our children,” he said. “To be able to be around students who are successful and who have taken time out of their busy schedule to come and unselfishly be with them and encourage them makes a huge differ-ence in their lives.”

Some of these relation-ships came from more than just the yearly mission trip.

McDonald, a long-time friend of Miller, also has many relatives who attend-ed and remain connected to ACU.

One student involved in the crash, Kendra Unamba, junior pre-med major from Midlothian, spent the past summer as an intern for the organization.

“She developed many close relationships with the children in our care,” McDonald said. “There has been an especially high level of concern by

our students for Kendra.”McDonald visited

Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo and Abilene Regional Medical Center over the weekend to de-liver cards and artwork crafted by the children at the Medina campus for those still being treated for injuries from the ac-cident. He also planned to attend Chapel on Monday morning. In addition, the prayer room of a chapel under construction at the Medina campus will be dedicated to all students involved in the wreck.

Arms of Hope already

had planned its annual dinner for Nov. 19 with a keynote from Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university. McDonald said the dinner will continue as planned and will honor Anabel Reid.

“The money that we are able to raise at that event will be used for scholar-ships for our children in honor of those students who have made sacrifices for our organization,” Mc-Donald said.

Ag department faces difficult weeks ahead

As the reality of the ACU’s weekend tragedy sets in, faculty, staff and students in the Department of Agri-culture and Environmen-tal Sciences have begun to consider their next steps. Finding a way forward may take time, say faculty and students.

For now, the depart-ment remains focused on honoring and assisting the victims.

Department chair Ed Brokaw said he hopes the response of the depart-ment and university will pay respect where it is due. He hopes the ag depart-ment will help lead the re-covery process.

“We have the best stu-dents here at ACU, and so many have already lent a hand when it was needed,” Brokaw said. “We need to continue this support and help each other through this very difficult time.”

The department and other university officials planned to meet Sunday night to decide which classes would meet during the coming week. Brokaw acknowledged most stu-dents will have a difficult time focusing while some classmates and professors are recovering from the wreck and others remain in the hospital.

The bus crashed en route to Medina, where the department conducts community service at a children’s home every year. The accident took the life of Anabel Reid, sophomore environmental science ma-jor from Petersburg, and sent 11 students, three fac-ulty members and a spouse to four area hospitals with varying injuries.

Colton McInturff, ju-nior animal science major

from Franklin, intended to go on the annual service project but had to drop out earlier in the week. He said he remained stunned by the tragedy.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” McInturff said. “I think everyone is having trouble accepting what has hap-pened.”

The entire university has reached out to the depart-ment and those involved with the accident, said McInturff, an officer in the Agricultural and Environ-mental Science club.

“I have plans to honor Anabel and those affected by this tragic accident. There are a lot of un-knowns right now, and I think everyone is still in a bit of shock.”

McInturff and other rep-resentatives of the depart-ment plan to meet with university administrators to finalize campus-wide initiatives to reach out to students as well as honor Anabel and those involved.

Many students have already been involved in spreading support. A can-dlelight vigil took place on campus Friday night, and another service was sched-uled for Sunday night at University Church of Christ. Several department stu-dents are planning on at-tending a celebration of life service for Anabel in Lub-bock on Wednesday as well, McInturff said.

natalie goinsports reporter

contact goin atnsg10b@acu.edu

courtesy of Department of agriculture and environmental science

Above: Ag department students from previous years participate in the department’s annual mission trip to Medina Children’s Home.

Colton mcinturffjunior animal science major from franklin

There are a lot of unknowns right now, and

I think everyone is still in a bit of shock.”“