Huron County... the place I grew up from the time I was a little girl until the day I traveled down the back roads with my car packed for college 18 years later as a young woman. It's great with its endless fields, backroads, beaches, and windmills, but what makes it the greatest is simply the people.
I'm convinced that the people that make up the small towns of Huron County have some of the biggest hearts on this planet. Small acts of kindness aren't out of the ordinary in our little towns, and when tragedy strikes one of our own, we come together to provide such an immense amount of love and strength it is simply incredible.
My sophomore year of high school, we suffered the tough loss of our high school soccer coach, Coach Dave DeCourval. Coach DeCourval touched the lives of everyone in a different way, but the impact he had on his players shaped them into who they are today.
I never played soccer for Coach DeCourval, but he did perfect my push-ups in the weight room on multiple occasions. I was doing what he referred to as, "head-ups." He was a face you always anticipated to see and a voice you could never forget.
The high school staff took his players, boys and girls, into the library and broke the awful news to them. As soccer players, some older and some younger than me, poured out of the library, most unable to breathe from how hard they were crying, I looked for my friends. Three of my closest friends played for Dave, and the news shattered each of them. Bad Axe High School's hallways absorbed more tears that day than any school ever should, but instead of letting this loss completely break our community we came together and used the strength of Dave DeCourval to fight through such an awful time.
#DaveDeCourvalStrong became a battlecry for the Hatchets. The hashtag appeared on social media, t-shirts, game signs, cleats, you name it. Hatchets from the past and present were all #DaveDeCourvalStrong.
Other coaches and teams from the area even took part in recognizing the difficult loss that our school was enduring. It wasn't until then that I realized what it meant to be #HuCoStrong, however. Watching my friends struggle for months, to cope with the loss was so hard. I wanted more than anything to take away their pain, but watching the ENTIRE county come together to support our teams through the loss of their hero was absolutely incredible. Sure, I had used the #HuCoStrong hashtag on occasion to show support for people in my community, but being present to witness the outpour of love and support from the entire county was truly remarkable. It gave such a simple hashtag so much meaning to me, personally.
Now, when we lose a little one to an illness, when we lose a buddy to a car accident, when we lose a family member to suicide, when we lose a loved one to cancer, when we lose a coach, a teacher, a mom, or a friend unexpectedly, we come together as one. We fight through the cancer, we show up as teams to pay our respects, we drink beer and laugh around around a big fire remembering those we've lost, we stand as support for those that make up our little towns when they need it most. We become, Huron County Strong.
We turned #HuCoStrong into an anthem. Our anthem. A hashtag with more meaning than words can describe because we give each other strength.
I came from a place where we work hard, and pray harder. We come together in times of need, and we become #HuCoStrong.
