Hays community 'is coming together' for Tom Green Elementary School bus crash families

Blanca Galvan sat on the floor Wednesday beside a mountain of colorful stuffed animals that dwarfed the front counter of her lemonade shop. Pokémon, Disney characters and cartoon character Peppa Pig lay among a growing pile of plastic crates filled with the plush creatures.

Galvan, owner of the Main Squeeze lemonade shop in Kyle, has collected about 200 toys thus far, but she wants to get 610 — enough for every student at Tom Green Elementary School.

The community is rallying behind the Hays school district after 44 pre-K students and 11 adults from the Tom Green campus were involved in a bus crash Friday afternoon that killed a 5-year-old as well as a man in a separate car.

The school community has donated money, decorated the school, provided meals and supported the school as students and parents physically recover and begin to process the tragedy.

For Galvan, collecting and donating the stuffed animals is the least she can do, she said.

“It’s been a little rough,” Galvan said. “The children are still frightened, shaken up.”

A bus carrying Tom Green Elementary students heading back from a field trip to a zoo rolled over during a collision with a concrete truck on Texas 21 near its intersection with Caldwell Road in Bastrop County about 2 p.m. Friday, law enforcement officials said.

Tom Green Elementary student Ulises Rodriguez Montoya and Ryan Wallace, 33, a doctoral student at the University of Texas who was driving behind the bus at the time of the crash, died in the wreck.

Police have said the driver of the concrete truck was driving east on Texas 21 and veered into the westbound lane of the incoming school bus. As of Wednesday, officials hadn’t released the name of the driver of the concrete truck, what caused the driver to veer into the incoming traffic lane, or the name of the company that owns the truck.

'Everyone is coming together'

Since Friday's crash, the Hays community has rallied to raise funds for the crash victims.

Andrea Piñon, who has children at Science Hall Elementary and Chapa Middle School in the Hays district, helped organize a GoFundMe account to raise money for one of the Tom Green Elementary teachers who had serious injuries.

She was at Science Hall Elementary for an Easter bunny photo event when she heard about the crash. She initially began thinking logistically about road closures, but then she learned it was a Hays district bus.

“You just never know,” Piñon said. “It’s eye-opening.”

She has also been trying to collect gift cards for the victims' families, who might need support as they begin any follow-up treatments for their children. That care might involve a lot of time on the road, she said.

“You have to go to downtown,” Piñon said. “If I put myself in their shoes, what would I need help with? I would need help with food on the go, gas on the go, things like that.”

The family of Ulises, the 5-year-old killed in the crash, has also set up a donation drive.

Ulises "was such a lovely child, was always happy and was just an innocent kid. He now leaves his family in so much pain, please help us to make this a little less stressful for them as they are very devastated at this time," the family says on the webpage to raise funds for his funeral expenses, which as of Wednesday afternoon had raised more than $84,700 of its $100,000 goal.

A former teacher also set up a GoFundMe page for all the crash victims' families to use. The account had raised more than $93,000 of its $100,000 goal as of Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday, parents gathered at Tom Green Elementary to decorate the sidewalk in chalk with encouraging messages and the fences with balloons and uplifting posters.

Tiffany Reyna brought her children to help with the decorations because the crash really hit home, she said. The crash upset her children, especially because her daughter has a field trip next week, she said.

"It's kind of sitting heavy on her," Reyna said. "She gets to make the decision if I'll drive her to camp or if she decides to ride the bus. It's a charter bus, but it's still a bus."

Other businesses have stepped in to help as well. Johnny G’s Barbershop in Buda donated its proceeds from Wednesday to the families involved in the crash. The Block Screen Printing in Kyle is also donating proceeds from sales of T-shirts with Tom Green decals to the families.

Many students involved in the crash aren’t ready to go back to school, Galvan said.

Galvan has lived in the Kyle-Buda communities, which feed into the Hays school district, since she was 10, she said. The communities have grown significantly as Austin's growth has spilled south into the once-rural towns, she said.

“Kyle-Buda used to be such a small, little town,” Galvan said. “It’s great to see that small town feel, that everyone is coming together.”

Galvan plans to collect stuffed animals the Main Squeeze, 106 N. Burleson St., in Kyle, through the end of Monday, but she hopes to reach the goal of 610 stuffed animals first, she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Hays community rallies behind school bus crash families