MISSOULA — Wednesday's plane crash in Washington D.C. happened more than 2,000 miles away but Western Montana’s skating community is feeling the tragedy.
The International Skating Union confirmed that several figure skaters, along with their families, friends, and coaches, were "understood" to be among those on board a jet that crashed into the Potomac River. Members of the Missoula Figure Skating Club took to the ice Thursday, just one day after the crash.
“The figure skating community is not very big and it's a small community. We cross each others' paths through a variety of ways,” said Jilayne Dunn, a long-time coach and club board member. “It just hits home really hard to know that most likely you've seen an individual that may have been affected by the tragedy or you knew people that knew them directly.”
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Dunn told MTN that the entire club is grieving for the victims’ families. “It's such a tragic, tragic loss. We are feeling their pain and want them to know that we are thinking about them,” she said.
The skating world is so small and tight-knit, Dunn said a tragedy like this ripples through the whole community.
“Just a really tragic loss for the sport of figure skating,” Dunn said. “When something like this happens, and it also happened back in 1961 with the tragic loss of the world team, it takes years to regain all that talent and so we're just really feeling that all over the nation and in the world.”
Just one day after the crash, the sense of loss hung over the rink. “All of us will be going through a grieving process, and I wanted to kind of help facilitate that," Dunn said.
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With so many young skaters in the Missoula Figure Skating Club, the community is coming together to help each other grapple with the loss. Many of the crash victims came from the Skating Club of Boston. To them, Missoula has a message to send, from one club to another.
“I thought, what could we do just from little old Missoula, Montana, that might be something that brings warmth to their heart. I thought I would bring a poster board and have all the kids sign it with well wishes, and heartfelt love and condolences,” Dunn said, tearfully. “I brought that try to do something to help them move through that process and make the Skating Club of Boston also feel loved and that we're thinking about them.”
