When Capt. Richard MacDougall was recovering at Royal Inland Hospital last month following the fatal Snowbirds crash in Kamloops on May 17, a massive get-well card arrived at his door.
Pictures of MacDougall with the card were shared on Facebook on Thursday (June 25) by Brock resident Jenn Carter, who had the idea for the gesture.
"When the crash happened, and everybody was putting up memorials on the fence, I looked through and I noticed that there wasn’t a whole lot there for Richard, mentioning him, so I just thought it’d be nice to give him something to show that Kamloops cared about him and was thinking of him," Carter tells Castanet.
MacDougall was seriously injured after the Tutor jet he was piloting went down shortly after take off. His passenger and the Canadian Forces Snowbirds public relations officer, Capt. Jennifer Casey, was killed.
Carter bought the paper, printed some photos of the makeshift memorial near YKA, and put a call out on Facebook for people to come sign. She brought the card to the memorial on three different days and managed to get over 100 well wishes.
"I had a couple that came from Vernon to sign the card," Carter says. "I had somebody from Vancouver."
Carter dropped off the card at the hospital and never had the opportunity to meet MacDougall in person, she says.
Yesterday, she received a text from the Snowbird; it included photos of him holding the card, and a message of thanks.
"It's cards like yours that have helped (me) get through it. I really really appreciate your amazing gift. It's thanks to people like yourself that I've been able to get up every day and press on. I hope (to) meet you when I recover and travel to Kamloops," MacDougall wrote to Carter.
Carter replied that she'd love to meet him.
"I think the community really came together to show their support to him," she says.
