When tragedy struck their hometown following the deadly bus crash with 29 members of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team, a husband and wife duo knew they had to do something to help those families grieving the loss of their sons, brothers and billet children.

“It’s been a hard year for our community,” said lifelong Humboldt resident Cindy Plag.

She and her husband Don are the pair behind the Humboldt Broncos Memorial Ribbons. As the city and the province as a whole marked the first anniversary of the crash on April 6, 2019, the Plag’s reflected on the past 12 months and how much the support from the nation has helped the small community heal.

Cindy said together they’ve made more than 12,000 ribbons, and they’ve handed them out over the past year during six funeral services, to a school in Japan and Australia and to the Nipawin RCMP and beyond.

Along the way they’ve been collecting donations for the Humboldt Broncos’ families who were involved in the crash on April 6, 2018.

“People are so generous too,” Cindy said. “We had a guy walk up and drop in a $100 bill and I asked him how many ribbons he wanted and he said ‘just one’ it was amazing.”

To date the ribbon campaign has collected $5,500.

In July the Plag’s took a drive out to the bus crash, where Highway 35 meets Highway 335. One-by-one the Plag’s gently placed a ribbon on each cross with the names of the 16 Broncos who died in the crash.

“It was very hard looking at all the names on the crosses,” Cindy said. “We were the only ones there and it was so quiet you could hear the birds.”

During the time they spent pinning ribbons, Cindy and Don said they were joined by several others, drivers who were passing through and stopped to pay their respects to the Broncos.

“I can’t imagine how many people have stopped there over the year.”

Special Jerseys donated

Earlier this year members of the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation came out to Elgar Pedersen Arena in Humboldt for a Broncos’ game.

With them they brought a few special Saskatoon Blades’ jerseys with Saskatchewan on the front and #TogetherStronger underneath. They all had the number 29 on the back symbolizing the 29 Broncos in the crash plus all the names etched close to the bottom of the jersey and all around.