HAMILTON – Almost seven years after a drunk driver killed three former Norwich High School students at Colgate University, family and friends of the victims say the loss is often still too hard to handle.
For some on that campus, the shock of the accident is hitting home for the first time.
“I didn’t know the details of the crash,” said Colgate Sophomore Mika Ella-Tang. “It’s all very shocking to me.”
On Nov. 11, 2000, best friends and Norwich graduates Rachel Nargiso, Emily Collins and Katie Almeter, along with Troy-native Kevin King, were killed when the drunk driver they were riding with lost control of his Jeep and struck a tree on the campus in Hamilton.
Tuesday, Ella-Tang was viewing a collection of the personal items, pictures and accounts depicting the victims’ and families’ lives before, during and after the tragedy. The exhibit, titled “Friends,” opened Monday and is on display at Colgate for the first time until Nov. 12 on the fifth floor of the University’s Case Library.
“Everyone has heard about it. Everyone knows about it,” Ella-Tang said, with tears in her eyes, referring to the accident. “But I never realized this many girls were involved.”
“Friends” is being shown as part of an Alcohol Awareness Month being sponsored by the university.
The exhibit was created by Dr. Dennis Foley, an Anthropology professor at Union College in Schenectady, in 2003 and has been shown in nearly 30 high school and college campuses across the state and northeast.
The collection includes pictures, videos, artwork, stuffed animals, sports trophies, journals, clothing, and a host of other “artifacts,” as Foley and family members call them.
“It shows them as people. It shows that they were students like them,” said Nargiso’s mother, Rita Ashton. “After seeing this, I think the students at Colgate will be able to relate to all four kids. Hopefully it influences them to make different choices.”
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