"These were good people who wanted to accomplish so much good in their lives," CHOICE Humanitarian board member Lew Swain told the crowd of family and friends. "We honor the memory of those great people."
About 150 people gathered in front of the headquarters for CHOICE Humanitarian in West Jordan just before sunset Friday to remember the 11 people, including three from Utah, who were killed when the single-engine plane they were traveling in went down en route to a village where they were to build a school.
The crash killed Cody Odekirk and John Carter, both of Utah; Jeff Reppe and Lydia Silva, of Illinois; Roger Jensen and his son Zachary, of Wisconsin; and Javier Rabanales and Walfred de Rabanales, of Guatemala. The pilot and co-pilot, Fernando Estrada and Monica Bonilla, both of Guatemala, also died.
Four people survived the initial impact and were able to escape the fiery debris before the plane exploded shortly after crashing into a field about 60 miles outside of Guatemala City.
CHOICE Humanitarian expedition leader Liz Valentiner Johnson of Salt Lake City initially survived the crash, but later died in a Guatemala City hospital from her injuries. The three survivors are Dan Liljenquist of Bountiful, and April Jensen and her daughter Sarah Jensen, both of Wisconsin.
Swain said that CHOICE Humanitarian operates in a number of countries in Central and South America and Africa, but never in its 25-year history has anything like this happened. The organization will regroup from this tragedy and continue its work to fight poverty in Third World countries, he said.
"When something like this happens, your first thought is 'How can you go on?' " said Niels Valentiner, Liz Valentiner Johnson's father and one of the founders of CHOICE Humanitarian. "But we realize the worst thing we could do is to walk away from this work."
Valentiner said that a group of volunteers plan to go back in a month to finish the project of building the school.
"This is a great loss, but we will have others continue out the mission," Swain said. "We have to continue on so that what they did is not wasted."
cmayorga@sltrib.com
On finishing their project, the construction of a school in Guatemala:
We have to continue on so that what they did is not wasted.
-Lew Swain, CHOICE Humanitarian board member
