A Washington state church and an online campaign by members of the Ethiopian community are raising funds to help a Spokane-area family return home with the remains of their children following an August 16 crash at a highway intersection east of Calgary.
On the afternoon of August 16, the family’s SUV was involved in a collision with a semi-tractor trailer at the intersection of Highway 36 and Highway 570 south of the town of Hanna, Alberta.
The family’s three children – a 16-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy and a girl who had yet to reach her first birthday - were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. The parents, a 44-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, were transported to hospital by ambulance in stable, non-life threatening condition with undisclosed injuries.The couple is currently receiving medical treatment at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
St. Gregorios Malankara Orthodox Church in Spokane, Washington has identified the family as the Adugnas, members of their congregation, and the church has begun to collect donations for a funeral fund for ‘helping with the immense financial burden of the transportation of the deceased from Canada to Spokane’. A funeral service for Blen, Christian and Emenet Adugna will be held Friday, August 25 at the church.
The parents, Solomon Adugna and Meseret Shiferaw, are expected to return to the United States in the coming days.
A GoFundMe account has been created to help the Habesha, originally from northern Ethiopia, parents with the cost they will encounter, estimated at $30,000, when returning stateside with their deceased children. To contribute to the campaign visit ‘3 Ethiopian tragic car accident’.
