Blue replaced the traditional orange and black at the girls’ basketball game Jan. 10.

Players tied their shoes with light blue laces and the student section wore blue to honor the anniversary of the passing of Carly Christenson.

The game included a moment of silence for Christenson, a Park freshman who passed away Jan. 8, 2013 from influenza complications. In remembrance of Christenson, students could donate to Carly’s Dream. Those who donated received a blue bracelet.
During the game, the Carly’s Dream fundraising booth raised $1,517 according to girls’ basketball coach Tim Sension.

Janet Maertens, close friend of the Christenson family, helped at the booth. Maertens said the attendance from Park shows the impact one person can have.

“(The support) shows to other children in the community that even a 14-year-old’s life makes a difference, so these little kids can see that they are important,” Maertens said.

The Carly Christenson University of North Dakota College of Nursing Endowment, or Carly’s Dream, reached its goal of $25,000 as of Jan. 13. This endowment was created by Mary Corbett and Marci Glessner, college friends of Christenson’s parents, with UND because it was Christenson’s goal to attend UND’s college of nursing.

Superintendent Rob Metz said Carly’s Dream allows people to more easily support the Christenson family and her memory through donations to Carly’s Dream.
“People want to help and this gives everyone an opportunity to do something,” Metz said.

Christenson’s close friend sophomore Kaylee Chamberlain said a lot of the support to achieve the goal originated from Christenson’s influence within multiple communities.

“I think that it is just amazing to see our community, as well as other communities that were affected by her, all come together to raise that much money,” Chamberlain said. “You never really realized how many people she touched and this is just reciprocating that again.”

Christenson’s mother Sandy Christenson said she is amazed by the support Carly’s Dream received.

“It’s kind of overwhelming, and you just can’t believe how generous everyone’s been,” Sandy Christenson said.

Corbett said she and Glessner began Carly’s Dream as an outlet for support and to continue to remember her.

“When a tragedy happens people are there right away, but they don’t know what to do over time,” Corbett said, “We thought this was a really good way to keep Carly’s memory alive forever.”

The endowment is still accepting donations, which will increase the scholarships awarded amount according to Corbett. This endowment is an annual scholarship that may be applied for by a nursing student with similar values to Christenson.

Christenson’s close friend sophomore Olivia Sieff said the fundraiser made something tragic into a positive light.

“Instead of look at how sad and hard it was, we look at the good that she would have accomplished,” Sieff said.