Days after four teenagers from Grande Prairie died and one ended up in hospital after a late-night crash, friends of the victims came together to say goodbye.
Matt Deller, Vince Stover, Tanner Hildebrand and Walter Borden-Wilkins were killed in a crash early Saturday morning on Highway 668 near Highway 40.
A fifth teen in the vehicle, Zak Judd, was taken to hospital in Edmonton.
CTV News has learned he is in critical, but stable condition.
Several classmates of the five teenagers stopped by the crash site Monday afternoon to pay their respects.
"They were a huge, huge, huge part of our community at our school," Dustin Plant told CTV News.
"The nicest people that could ever be," Cody Savoy said, "Just gone in an instant."
The five teens attended Grande Prairie Composite High School and all played on the school football team.
In the days following the crash, the community has united to grieve the loss, and support those affected most by the tragedy.
Monday was scheduled as a professional development day at the school, however, officials opened the building to students – and made grief counsellors available to classmates grieving the loss.
On Monday afternoon, parents of students at the high school were expected to gather at the school, with food donations for the families affected by the collision.
The community support has touched one parent of a student at the school.
Paul Ouellette's son plays on the Grande Prairie Composite High School Warriors football team, and is amazed at the way the community has stepped up to support the families.
"My vocabulary doesn't cover it enough," Ouellette said. "All I can say is, [I am] overwhelmed,
"There was a couple of really long days for a lot of us to kind of let it all sink in, now we've all got a lot of work to do."
When they return to the classroom, students and staff have been invited to wear the school's colours, black and orange, as a sign of respect.
With files from Jessica Earle
