On this day in 2007, 13-year-old Brandon Hefty got off his school bus and was crossing the intersection less than a block away from his home when he walked into a moving recycling truck, which was making rounds on the opposite side of the street. Brandon was killed instantly.
Chaplain Barbara arrived on the scene quickly to find the quiet neighborhood filled with shocked kids, parents, and emergency crews. Barbara shared, “I can not imagine what is was like for those kids to witness what they did and my heart just went out to them…”
Her first priority was to comfort the family, as well as the 29-year-old driver of the vehicle, who was later found not at fault.
As the week dragged on, she was brought into the school district and the middle school where Brandon had been a student. The trucking company expressed their concern and sadness to Barbara, asking what they might be able to do to help ease some of the pain.
Barbara suggested that they purchase Art with Heart’s Chill & Spill books because we knew it would be an appropriate and powerful tool for the school counselor to use. The owner of the company agreed to buy 125 books to give to the school counselor as well as the other chaplains to use as they helped to heal the hearts of the children in the community.
“When I originally had talked to the school counselor, he had told me that he didn’t know what he was going to do. When I brought him the Chill & Spill books, he started paging through one and told me that it was exactly what he needed.”
So, he began by gathering together the core group of kids that were most affected by Brandon’s death and began meeting with them regularly and working through the pages in the book, helping them to use it to express their hurt, pain, and anger, and to begin the process of healing.
“When young teens don’t get the support they need, they end up not knowing how to act — and then they spend much of their time reacting to situations and feeling out of control. They feel that sense of loss deep within their heart — and until they can express it, it just lingers. This book provides them a way to that much-needed expression, so that they don’t fall into bad behaviors because of the pain in their heart.”
Barbara told us that her hope was that Chill & Spill would be readily available in schools so that counselors would have ready access to it. “Our kids are growing up in a difficult time — they have a lot of things going on that family and teachers aren’t even aware of, and this book could draw out and increase their emotional health.”
Art with Heart has just released its newest therapeutic book, entitled “Ink About It” a book co-written by founder Steffanie Lorig, therapist Annie McCall, MA, LMHC and Child Life Specialist Kate Gardner, CCLS.