A SHINING REMINDER OF LATE YOUTHS

By most accounts, Leah House and Trinity Bird were stars in their own
right.

Now they have a couple of stars named after them.

"It was so touching. (Their families) were so honoured," said Marie
Bird, a federal government outreach worker in the Paul First Nation,
where the two teenage girls lived. "It's all part of the healing process."

The close-knit community on the eastern shore of Lake Wabamun, 60 km
east of Edmonton, was devastated by the deaths of Leah, 14, and
Trinity, 15.

They were among a group of teens at a wedding reception on March 21,
when several of them suddenly became violently ill.

Four of the kids were rushed to hospital, but the two girls never
recovered. They were taken off life support and by March 24, they were
dead.

Police said that the club drug ecstasy was found in their systems.
Within a few days, a 16-year-old boy from the community was arrested
and charged with four counts of drug trafficking, two counts of
criminal negligence causing death and two counts of criminal
negligence causing bodily harm.

Marie Bird works for the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Program, which offers education, intervention and treatment in native
communities.

In her work with the Paul Band, Bird said she never dealt with Trinity
and Leah.

"They were not drug users," she said. "They were very innocent girls.
These girls didn't know any better."

Bird was at a NNADAP training seminar on the weekend of the wedding.
When she received news of the tragedy in her community, she left to be
with the grief-stricken families in the hospital.

When word got back to the seminar that the girls had passed away, the
other NNADAP workers took up a collection.

The money was used to purchase two stars at the Telus World of Science
in the girls' honour.

Leah's star is 64 Gem and Trinity's is 65 Gem. Both are in the Gemini
constellation.

The families, Bird explained, can now go to the centre's observatory
and find the girls' stars in the night sky. "It was a great thing (for
my colleagues) to do," Bird said.

She presented the families with certificates of the stars Thursday at
a ceremony in Stony Plain. They read, "May you forever shine upon all
who knew and loved you."

Dozens of friends, classmates at Memorial High School and relatives
released balloons into the air, each inscribed with a personal message
to the girls.

"There were a lot of young people there," Bird said. "I think that
meant a lot to the families."

Sadly, tragedy is all too common in some native communities.

But this horrifying case has hit the Paul Band particularly
hard.

The girls were well-liked. Relatives have described them as kind,
respectful and studious. By all accounts, they were doing everything
right.

That a tragedy like this could befall these girls has sent shockwaves
through the community.

"We're all grieving," said Bird. "It's affected everyone in one way or
another."

But, she added, the families are buoyed by the community's
support.

"For them, it's like it happened yesterday," she said, "but gestures
like (the stars) will make a big difference."