PHOTO GALLERY — Bench honors fallen but never forgotten Bop Hope School students
Published 12:40 am Saturday, December 4, 2021
Blanca Barragan, left, consoles Abygail Anaya. (Mary Meaux/The News)
Alex Sawyer, left and Cesar Samaniego hug in grief. (Mary Meaux/The News)
The bench outside Bob Hope High School with plaques in memory of Jesse Sawyer and Adrian Castellanos. (Mary Meaux/The News)
Sonia Barragan mother of Adrian Castellanos, left, and Susan B. Anaya address the crowd during the ceremony. (Mary Meaux/The News)
Family members of Adrian Castellanos; Blanca Barragan, left, consoles Abygail Anaya, as family members of Jesse Sawyer including mother Nanette Sawyer, Alex Sawyer and Bert Sawyer listen as Sonia Barragan, mother of Adrian Castellanos speaks. (Mary Meaux/The News)
Nanette Sawyer, left, speaks with Jesus Diaz and Nayeli Diaz before the ceremony. (Mary Meaux/The News)
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Two families grieving for their lost loved ones came together Friday along with students and staff at Bob Hope High School for the unveiling of a bench with plaques in honor of two former students who died.
Emotions were raw as Alex Sawyer spoke of his older brother Jesse who died at the age of 16 on April 25, 2011.
Jesse was a sophomore at the school and had been enrolled for eight months when he was struck by an alleged drunk drive while skateboarding in Groves.
Alex Sawyer told the crowd to treat each other as if they were family.
“See each other as brothers and sisters because in the end, that’s what everybody is, they’re family,” Sawyer said, adding to treat each day as if it were your last. “Because you never know when it will be your last.”
Nanette Sawyer, Jesse and Alex’s mother, stood in the foyer of the school looking at photos of graduation classes through the years. Jesse would have graduated in 2013. Alex graduated in 2015.
Sonia Barragan, mother of Adrian Castellanos, called the bench and plaque heartwarming.
Castellanos was killed when his vehicle struck a tree on Memorial Boulevard on Aug. 13. He was a recent graduate of Bob Hope High School and was just starting college and a new job.
Abygail Anaya, Castellanos’ cousin, stood next to Barragan and leaned toward her during the ceremony.
Barragan’s hope is for the bench to serve students and staff and be a place where people can meditate, sit and talk or have lunch, “especially Abygail,” Barragan said of the teen that also attends the school.
Family, friends and classmates of Sawyer and Castellanos were on hand.
The small ceremony was held just outside of the school near the front doors.
