CEDARVILLE — The Cedarville University community is mourning the loss of Grace Maxwell, one of nearly 70 people who died in the crash between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at Reagan Washington National Airport.
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As previously reported, Maxwell was a 20-year-old mechanical engineering major from Wichita, Kansas. She was returning from her grandfather’s funeral and was supposed to catch a connecting flight from Washington, D.C. to Ohio.
News Center 7 was at the university on Friday as university president Dr. Thomas White addressed the campus community.
“There’s nothing that makes this easier. I can’t say anything that takes away your hurt or your pain,” White said.
White spoke openly, honestly, and directly to 4,000 students and staff about the loss of Maxwell and the double tragedy her family is enduring.
“Can you imagine losing a parent and seven days later losing a child?” Thomas asked.
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As shown on News Center 7 at 5:00, hundreds of students accepted the president’s invitation to leave their seats, step forward, and get on their knees to pray for the Maxwell family. The student body chaplain said the prayers were also for a suffering university community.
“Yeah, we feel real anger and real pain, and we’re really upset and sad but at the same time, we still have hope and we trust that our hope of eternal life will get us through these moments,” Trey Storr, Cedarville Student Government Chaplain, said.
That attitude is one of the reasons the university community said they could find their voice in praising God and remembering their fallen friend.
“If you gave her a single second to talk, she would tell you how much she cared and how her faith impacted her life,” Riley Blair, a Cedarville junior, said.
Fellow junior Aspen Schiebout said Maxwell was an “enthusiastic” person.
Both Blair and Schiebout shared a housing unit with Maxwell. They said she was reserved with strangers and then, very loud and passionate with friends. That’s something they will cherish.
“I think she would really be shocked to probably realize that she’d made that big of an impact because she was one of those people that never, never realized that she actually made an impact on people,” Blair said.
Cedarville leaders told News Center 7 that true to her faith and character, Maxwell had already been planning to serve on a mission trip in London this coming summer. They hope her servant’s attitude will be one of the things more honored and inspirational to other students and the Miami Valley.
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