Community healing in the Silver Valley

KELLOGG — A string of tragedy and loss has plagued the Silver Valley in recent months.

Addressing that fact, the S.A.V.E. Coalition and Silver Valley Chamber partnered to host a community healing event in Kellogg City Park to check in with residents and help provide avenues to process feelings and assess mental health for people in need.

The event Thursday merged with the weekly Kellogg Music in the Park series to reach more people.

Mary Harding and Eve Heart could be found sitting in the shade by a sign that said “Let’s Talk.” The two are mental health professionals who made themselves available to help guide folks feeling overwhelmed.

“It’s our day of healing. It’s been rough for our community,” Harding said.

Since school is out for the summer and community members are just starting to process the death of two students, there have been fewer opportunities to assess how kids are handling the fallout.

“There are a lot of unknowns right now. Our community has had a lot of tragic events, and when you're dealing with a small community, these events hit closer to home. There are family members, friends, co-workers dealing with loss due to trauma, suicide and significant loss. We want to be able to come together as a community and show support to those who are grieving, help individuals process those feelings, and identify individuals who may need follow up with a professional,” S.A.V.E. Coalition president Tara Lodi said.

Josh Salvador had been friends with Aiken Smith since he moved to Kellogg from Oregon in the sixth grade. His family helped him set up a table at the community healing event with a tribute to Smith's life, including photos of them together at Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps and a folded flag.

Smith and three family members were shot and killed June 18 at their Kellogg home. Aiken was 16.

The family's neighbor, Majorjon Kaylor, 31, was arrested in connection with their deaths.

Salvador calculated he and Smith had spent a total of 104.5 hours volunteering together this year for the Wallace and Kellogg Elks clubs, as well as local elementary schools. Most of their time outside school revolved around JROTC.

“Aiken was in charge of the Color Guard. I’ve known him for a long time. He was very inclusive. He always tried to bring people together,” Salvador said.

Barb King and Heidi Salvador helped him set up the table, which also included a peg and chip game as part of an interactive element to invite people over.

“Aiken was good at reaching out and pulling people into the group. They’re really like a family,” Heidi Salvador said. “That’s what friends are for. They’ll honor his memory and continue.”

S.A.V.E. had resources and activities available for people of all ages who have been struggling with loss, including school counselors for youth.

First responders have had to witness the heartache firsthand and this was a key opportunity to evaluate stress levels and how well they have been coping. “We want them to feel recognized for the good that they provided to our community,” Lodi said.

S.A.V.E. is urging people to take a step back and realize that you can cause an extremely negative and unpredictable impact to others if you choose to say hurtful things online.

“The most heart-wrenching part of this experience has been to watch loved ones of the victims not be able to adequately grieve their losses due to the harsh criticism from social media. The negative people are always the loudest, but just because they are the loudest, does not mean that they are the majority. Those of us that show up are the majority, and want what's best for our community to move forward and heal,” Lodi said.