Righting a wrong: Revamping the 'Run for Willy'

By Max Orenstein
Senior Staff Writer
April 9, 2008

Seven months after the cancellation of an event in honor of a student who died in a drunken driving incident, individuals inside and outside the La Salle community have joined together to reorganize the event with a different focus.

Courtesy of Brian Arty - Dante Barnes with his son Jamir prior to his
death Nov. 10, 2006 in a drunk driving accident with former La Salle student Wilson Maldonado (above).

In November 2006, La Salle junior Wilson Maldonado, a 20-year-old Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) brother and La Salle football player, drove the wrong way on the Schuylkill Expressway at 100 mph while intoxicated. An ensuing car crash resulted in the death of both Maldonado and 34-year-old Philadelphia native Dante Barnes.

A fundraising event was organized 10 months later in remembrance of Maldonado by FIJI and the sorority Delta Phi Epsilon. “Run for Willie” consisted of a sponsored jog designed to raise scholarship money for Maldonado’s younger brother Christian so that he could attend a private Christian secondary school.

After hearing about the event, Tamia Robinson, the mother of Barnes’ then-five-year-old son, Jamir, (and a former La Salle student), voiced her dismay in a letter to the editor published in the Sept. 19 issue of Collegian (“Not just Willie sufferedl,” p. 6), arguing that the “Run for Willie” event showed no consideration for her now-fatherless son.

“I was outraged,” Robinson said. “Mainly because they forgot about my son. Jamir is one of the biggest victims of this tragedy.”

Robinson also contacted Mothers Against Destructive Decisions, who backed up Robinson’s sentiment, fundamentally disagreeing with “Run for Willie” on a variety of levels. Amid pressure from these two parties, “Run for Willie” was indefinitely postponed and an apology was issued to the Barnes family.

“I believe the students who planned it had good intentions,” Dean of Students Dr. Joseph J. Cicala said. “In hindsight it should have been a more expansive program.”

TIn early December, a group gathered in De La Salle Chapel to discuss different ways to revamp the program. Senior communication major Brian Arty, a FIJI brother, teamed up with Cicala to organize an educational program that would be sensitive to all affected parties. Representatives from MADD and La Salle’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Education Center staff, as well as Robinson and Barnes’ mother, were in attendance. They had an extensive conversation concerning everyone’s feelings and discussed how they could move forward.

“I thought it was important to come together and share resources so that we would never come forward to judge one another,” Cicala said.

“We talked about the event,” Robinson added. “It was a relaxed environment, but it was very emotional. Many of us were crying by the end of it.”

Over the last few months, a subgroup consisting of Cicala, Arty, Robinson and a variety of representatives from FIJI, Peer Educators. La Salle’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Center, [MADD representative Angela Davis,] worked together to design and shape the new program: “Drinking and Driving: Remembering Those Lost, Losing No More.”

The week-long event kicks off April 14 and will run through April 17. Tables, staffed by members of FIJI, Delta Phi Epsilon and Peer Educators, will be set up around the student union during free period during the week. Members of the La Salle community are encouraged to approach the tables and decorate a square panel to commemorate how they have been affected by drunk driving.

According to senior biology major Andy Weingarten, one of the Peer Educators included on the sub-committee, the panels will then be incorporated into a mural that will then be hung in the chapel.

There will also be a series of informational messages posted around campus and on the portal about drinking and driving.

The program will then culminate with a candlelight vigil that starts at the De La Salle Chapel at 7 p.m. April 17. According to Weingarten, glow sticks will be used instead of candles. Opening statements will be delivered by Arty, and Father Jim Dever is scheduled to offer words of reflection and prayer.

After the opening statements in the chapel, those in attendance will proceed in silence out onto Olney Avenue, before turning back down 20th Steet and ending on the quad.

After the opening statements in the chapel, those in attendance will proceed in silence out onto Olney Avenue, before turning back down 20th Steet and ending on the quad. he incident.

Robinson and Barnes’ aunt are also scheduled to speak at the event, which Jamir will also attend. Organizers plan to close with a prayer and a moment of silence.

Overall, the organizers seem pleased with the way the event has turned out.

“Everyone’s had an equal say,” Weingarten said, “I think everyone’s satisfied that the families and friends from both victims of this tragedy are being taken into consideration.”

“I was disappointed that it didn’t happen the way we envisioned it, but I’m very pleased with the way it’s turned out,” Arty added. “It speaks volumes that we were all able to come together and be on the same page.”

Students have also reacted favorably to the revised plans.

“This is a more appropriate approach than glorifying an unpleasant situation,” sophomore finance and economics major Dan Rosenberg said. “It’s better that the La Salle community learns from everything that happened.”

Robinson is pleased with the new “prevention and awareness” angle of the event.

“It will reach a more general audience,” Robinson said. “I don’t think money should’ve been involved before.

“I’m happy the way things have been restructured. I can be proud rather than embarrassed to be a [former] La Salle student. They fixed things. They’re doing it right now.”

Cicala said he hopes that “Drinking and Driving: Remembering Those Lost…” leads to a more proactive stance on providing information about drunk driving during programs such as Day One and Opening Weekend.

orensteinm1@lasalle.edu