Patti
Haslam, Bob Haslam and Patti's mother, Enid Neleski, grieve
the loss of Jina Haslam, 14, who was killed in a car-bicycle
accident on June 20. They are holding a photo of Jina, stuffed
animals given to them by staff at Eastern Maine Medical Center
when she was born and when she died, and a bear given to them
because Jina was an organ donor. BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY
ABIGAIL CURTIS
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 NEWS: HANCOCK
Fund drives
started to honor Lamoine girl
Family seeks support for gym,
scholarship in memory of 14-year-old killed in bike accident
Wednesday,
July 06, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
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LAMOINE - Patti Haslam's eyes welled with tears as she
remembered her daughter, Jina, who was killed in a car-bike accident
last month just down the road from her family's home.
"She
was going places," she said of Jina, 14. "Big places. She was going
to be something."
That's why family members said earlier this
week they are mounting twin fund-raising drives: to build a gym for
the town of Lamoine in Jina's memory and to create a scholarship
fund for a future Mount Desert Island Regional High School graduate
who plans to become a veterinarian.
"Jina just had too much
potential for us not to do something to remember her by," her mother
said.
Patti and Bob Haslam described their daughter as the
kind of girl who loved animals, music and her close-knit family. She
was a talented athlete who was beginning to experiment with eye
makeup and who enjoyed what her mother called "girlie-girl" things.
She was also a self-starter with a long-range plan to become
a veterinarian, which was in motion on the morning of June 20. That
day, the high-honors graduate from Lamoine Consolidated School had
risen early to work with the goats at the Seal Cove Farm in Lamoine.
Her life was cut short when her bicycle was struck from
behind by a car driven by an 81-year-old neighbor. Jina was
returning from the beach, where she had taken the family dog for a
swim.
Her parents first wondered if something was wrong when
the dog showed up on the porch without Jina.
"You have to go
on," her grandmother, Enid Neleski, said through tears. "So we're
continuing on with life ... we're just a close family."
The
closeness and the warm support the family has felt from the
close-knit town of Lamoine have provided solace, they
said.
From visits to the piles of sympathy cards they have
received to the Ellsworth Wal-Mart staff's refusal to charge them
for prints of photos of Jina, the community has helped.
"We
found out, the more support the better," Bob Haslam said.
His wife agreed. "It picks us up, it keeps us going, knowing
how many people care or are thinking of us," she said. "Every day,
there are more cards to read in the mailbox. Although it's had to
read them, it's very inspiring to read words of comfort and love
from people."
Neleski and the Haslams thought that the
memorial fund-raising drives would be good ways to share Jina's
spirit with the community that has helped them.
Patti Haslam
said that it helps a little to think that future students will be
going to veterinary school, just the way Jina had planned to do.
And the school's gym that saw their daughter through many
sporting events needs to be expanded.
"This gym is just
needed," Bob Haslam said. "Lamoine's just overgrown what it has now.
... And it helps to know there's some good coming out of
this."
Fund-raising activities include a huge community yard
sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 23, for the Jina Gym Fund,
a children's yard sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at
the Lamoine Baptist Church, and a benefit tennis tournament Aug.
13-14 at the Ellsworth Tennis Center. Donations to either effort may
be sent to The First, c/o Bonnie Marckoon, P.O. Box 1664, Blue Hill
04614. Call 667-8824 for information.
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