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Community Corner

Memorial Park in Albertville Honors Teen Killed in Crash

Pelican Rapids and Albertville joined together to create the park in honor of Jessica Weishair and others who have died on area roads.

Correction: A previous version of this story included the incorrect first name of the Eagle Scout who created the flagstone patio.

The morning of April 5, 2008, was a difficult one for local fire and rescue professionals.

A charter bus carrying high school band students from Chicago to their hometown of Pelican Rapids, MN, had crashed on Interstate 94 going through Albertville, and four students were trapped inside.

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One student, 16-year-old Jessica Weishair, did not survive the accident, and a roadside memorial to her and the bus crash became a frequently visited location for Weishair’s family and friends.

The memorial site was disrupted during a reconfiguration of Interstate 94 in that area. That led to a collaboration between two Minnesota communities—located 170 miles apart.

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Albertville and Pelican Rapids created Memorial Park, a butterfly garden in memory of Weishair, the bus crash and all of those who have been killed while traveling local roads. Memorial Park is located on the frontage road 62nd St., next to the Stone Countertop Outlet.

Weishair’s love of butterflies was the impetus behind creating a butterfly garden, with butterfly-friendly flowers and stone benches for people to stop, gather and enjoy the memorial area.

To complete this memorial, dubbed “the Jessica Project,” residents in Pelican Rapids organized a pancake breakfast and raised nearly $4,000 for Memorial Park. Many others donated toward the cause, such as Cutting Edge CNC Plasma out of Monticello, who donated the butterfly sculptures.

Local Boy Scout Nolan Anderson's Eagle Scout project was the park’s flagstone patio that surrounds the garden.

Even the general contractor of the Interstate 94 project pitched in to help create Memorial Park by donating equipment, gravel and labor.

“It was a tragedy, but there were good things that happened, and one of those things was I think the community of Albertville has made a bond with the Pelican Rapids community because of what happened that day,” Albertville Fire Chief Tate Mills said. “That day there was a busload full of kids and we couldn’t just let them go … a lot of members from our community helped get them fed and took care of them until their parents could get down here.”

Last month, those joined together by the tragedy spent a Saturday working side by side to complete Memorial Park. They added trees, flowers, trellises, the butterfly sculptures and a plaque. 

“I was the incident commander that day,” Mills said, “and it has always been one of the tougher calls for me. This process over the past year and a half has helped me through it.”

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