Dear Chief Anderson,
This past Friday was a normal Friday night at the Depot; lots of kids, lots of noise. Officer Chris Jimenez walked in the door and came straight over to me and said there had been a bus accident on the thruway; would it be possible to bring the people on the bus to the Depot as it was bitter cold, and the wind was relentless.
Within 15 minutes Officer Jimenez returned with the entire Merrimack College girls basketball team, state troopers, Post 53 and a host of responders. There are no words that can truly explain the faces of the girls that walked into the Depot Friday night.
Every outlet in the building was being used to call parents. They were cold, they were crying, and they had been shaken to the core of their being. The news reported the bus had run off the thruway into the Noroton Heights Train Station parking lot.
That bus was airborne, and those girls are lucky to be alive. As they sat in the booths, little by little the younger girls went over to talk to the college girls. One of them bluntly asked “are you real basketball players?”
It was great; the team laughing replied they were, as the girls proceeded to tell them all about “house basketball.” By the time the college girls left, everyone was a little calmer.
THANK YOU OFFICER JIMENEZ , for facilitating the entire “rescue mission” Friday night!
Janice Marzano, Program Director
The Depot Youth Center