Emotional concert raises thousands for school sneakers in Milltown

People in the Milltown-Bay d'Espoir area continue to bounce back from fires that devastated the community earlier this month.

The school complex and town hall were burned and the RCMP building was damaged extensively on Jan. 17. 

Teachers from the school held a concert as a fundraiser to replace the sneakers that burned in the fire. The re-purposed school in St. Alban's is being converted back to classrooms, which should be opened in the next two weeks.

Laci Organ, 13, is a student from the town who performed in the show.

"Music is a way for all of us to come together," she said.

"We're kind of a little lost right now — there are a lot of things that we lost."

Organ said the indoor footwear has a special significance for students of all ages.

"The little kindergarteners or younger kids have shoes that might light up or something like that, or nice basketball shoes for the high schoolers, so I'd say they are pretty special," she said.

Milltown students sing for sneakers

8 years ago

Duration 4:54

Students from Milltown-Bay d'Espoir came together to raise money to replace sneakers lost when their school was burned to the ground a little over a week ago.

Organ said the concert was a great way for people in the area to have a night out, to try and forget about the events of recent months.

In addition to the fires, the region was hit hard by the tail end of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.

"It was a pretty emotional night," Organ said.

Music is a way for all of us to come together.- Laci Organ

"They were happy tears, of course. We all came together in the end, and we were happy we could find something to bond over. We all got together and  sang songs and were in each other's company, which was a pretty happy moment."

The event raised $7,000 for the school.

Organ said even though she's been out of classes for a couple weeks, she is looking forward to returning to school.

"You never really know what you've got 'til it's gone," she said.  

Donald Craig MacHaight, 48, faces three charges of intentional cause of damage by fire in connection with fires set at the Milltown-Bay d'Espoir Town Hall, Bay d'Espoir Academy and the Bay d'Espoir RCMP detachment.