#DevinStrong: Candlelight ceremony honors victims
Published 8:49 am Friday, October 20, 2017
- Family, friends and community members gather at the flagpole at Rock Hill High School for a vigil to honor four slain community members Wednesday evening.
About 300 gather at Rock Hill High School
“It’s a new beginning,” Shyla Igo said, referring to the lives lost in Decatur Township last week. “They’re in a better place than we are. They’re in heaven, and it doesn’t get any better than heaven, but people left here on earth are going through hell.”
About 300 people gathered at Rock Hill High School Wednesday night for a candlelight ceremony to honor Donald McGuire, 50, Tammie McGuire, 43, Stacey Jackson Holston, 25, and Devin Holston, 8, who were murdered last Wednesday at a home on State Route 93.
“It’s been a terrible tragedy,” Igo, an organizer of the event, said. “There are no words to say what happened.”
The event paid tribute to the dead, while calling for support for the surviving family.
“They would want us to be there for their family, and especially for Todd,” Igo said of the surviving father of the family. “They need everyone’s support.”
She spoke of Braxton, his two-year-old son, with Stacey.
“There is a little boy who is going to grow up and he has no clue,” she said. “I don’t think any of us have any clue to what is going to come out of this.”
Igo said the event was “all about love” and asked those present to donate to the family to help pay for the expense of the four funerals.
A cousin and some classmates made posters for Devin.
Igo read the cousin’s poster to the crowd.
“Devin, I will never forget you,” it read. “You will always be in my heart, you were my best friend, my best cousin I ever had. You played Minecraft, soccer and baseball with me. You were always with me. And I love you. I am so glad you did everything with me, Braxton and your Mom and Dad. I love you so, so, so, so, so much. Love, Destiny.”
Following a moment of silence, four luminary balloons were launched, one for each member of the family.
Inside the school, the Rock Hill Athletic Boosters and the Rock Hill Football Moms were selling shirts, reading “#DevinStrong,” to raise funds for the family.
“We printed 478, and they’re mostly gone,” Lisa Bolner said. “We still taking orders until Nov. 1
She said that anyone who would like to donate can contact her, Laura Hankins or Charlie Dalton on Facebook.
Donations for the family can also be sent to Rock Hill Athletic Boosters c/o Angie Wild, 96 Private Drive 1279, Ironton Ohio 45638.