Stoughton Community Comes Together To Make Ribbons For Families

STOUGHTON, MA — A group of mothers led by Linda Rinaldi held a ribbon-making event at the Stoughton VFW yesterday in support of the families of Chris Desir, Eryck Sarblah, Nick Joyce, and David Bell , the four Stoughton High School students that died in a car crash in East Bridgewater.

The ribbons will be hung up at the victims' families' houses, in town center, at the high school, and various locations around Stoughton.

Local businesses also volunteered with the event including organizational assistance from JJB School Transportation owner Michael Silva, car decals from Express Graphics and Designs, and food provided by the local Panera Bread and The Chateau.

Rinaldi said her and a group of mothers decided to organize the event because they wanted to do something to help the families in anyway they could.

Pam Carr, one of the mothers who helped organize the event said, "We all came together and wanted to show the families we have a village behind them."

This "village" came out as soon as the event started. At 6 p.m., every table in the hall was full and there were people sitting on the ground as they made their ribbons and bows.

Originally, the event was supposed to be in the smaller room of the VFW. Carr said over 200 people responded to the Facebook event post, so the event ended up getting moved to the larger function room.

The community that came out included students, parents, friends, and even teachers. Gibbons Elementary School teacher Genevieve Criscuolo as well as Hansen Elementary school teacher Roland Millien both came out to show their support.

Criscuolo said she wants to provide, "Any little help we can do to help bring some comfort to the families."

Millien said he knew Bell from coaching basketball at the YMCA. He coached his older brother and said Bell was always trying to jump into their practices.

He said besides the community, he wanted to be at the event because he's close with Joyce's cousin, whose grieving the loss of another family member, Christopher Joyce was murdered as an innocent bystander from a gang related shooting in Jamaica Plain.

Rinaldi came up with the idea a couple years ago after a friends of hers was killed by a fallen tree during a winter storm. She said the same day, this happened to a young girl in Canton.

Rinaldi said given both tragedies, she wanted to do something for their families. She said given the positive impact it had on those families a couple years ago, she wanted to do the same in Stoughton, where her son goes to high school.

According to Rinaldi, she heard about the car crash and then received a phone call. "My 17-year-old called on the phone and said, that was all my friends."

Carr said everyone will be meeting tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Drake Avenue baseball field to start hanging the ribbons throughout town.