A heartbreaking tragedy has rocked Climax Springs School District and the community of Missouri after a devastating crash on Friday evening, February 21.

Four people lost their lives in the violent crash, including three recent high school graduates who were on their way home after watching their alma mater’s basketball game.

Slammed into a fence and a tree

Around 8 p.m. on Friday, February 21, a tragic crash took place in western Missouri. A 49-year-old man was driving a 2025 Toyota Corolla south on U.S. Highway 54 when he ran a stop sign and was hit by an eastbound GMC Terrain. The impact was devastating. The 38-year-old man driving the GMC, whose name hasn’t been released, died at the scene.

The three young passengers in the Corolla—Ava Wolfe, Jayden Butterfield, and Violet Corado—also lost their lives. They were all recent graduates of Climax Springs School District. The force of the crash sent the Corolla off the road, slamming into a fence and a tree, according to reports.

This loss has shaken the community, with the district remembering these bright young lives in a heartfelt post on Facebook, according to Kansas City Star.

”Last evening, after attending an away basketball game, three recent Climax Springs graduates were involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident,” school district officials said. Ava and Jayden were both beloved employees of the district, who dedicated their time and talent to our students each day,” the school district wrote and added:

”As students, all of these individuals left a legacy within our school.”

”The District will host counselors for our students and staff on Monday and Tuesday of next week. As the families and our community grieve the loss of lives which held many great things ahead of them, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers,” the post concluded.

Dreamed of becoming an English teacher

Corrado had dreams of becoming a high school English teacher, as mentioned in a senior spotlight posted in May, according to Daily Mail. Just a day before the crash, Wolfe had bought a Ford Bronco, according to a local dealership.

”Just yesterday, Ava was here, filled with joy and excitement as she drove home in her Bronco,” the dealership, Maples Ford, shared. ”To now be facing this heartbreaking loss is truly unimaginable.”

In a Facebook post from February 2022, Ashley Butterfield reflected on watching her daughter play basketball for the last time.

”Watching these girls grow up, do what they love, laughing and cheering each other through tough games and always lifting each other up has come to an end,” she wrote. ”Many basketball camps, summer leagues, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours in practice, after-game meals, and pregame talks… It’s all over. I just blinked and it’s over.”

”Jayden, you are one hell of an athlete and I’m so lucky I’ve been fortunate enough to follow you around all these years,” Ashley posted. ”I would do it all over and over again.”

A fundraising page has also been set up for the girls’ families, and many have already donated. Here’s what the person who started the fundraiser, LaRessa LyVonne Cline, writes:

”These beautiful souls were part of three different families and have left the community devastated. In times like these, there aren’t enough prayers, love or tears that could even touch the hurt or heal the hearts of a small town.”

Four out of the ten were wearing seatbelts

In addition to the fatalities, four passengers inside the SUV — two 16-year-old girls from Osceola, an 18-year-old woman, and a 39-year-old woman — were injured, with injuries ranging from minor to serious. The 38-year-old driver of the Corolla also sustained serious injuries.

Officials also reported that only four out of the ten people involved in the collision were wearing seatbelts.

Such a heartbreaking loss 😞. These young lives taken too soon. May they all rest in peace. My deepest condolences to their families. God bless you all.

In 1997 the world’s first septuplets were born to couple Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey in Iowa, U.S.

The birth of these special babies, who were born 9 weeks prematurely, attracted headlines around the world as the new parents were inundated with invites for interviews.

They ended up appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate their first birthday and each received their own birthday cake. They also got to meet former president Bill Clinton.

The world’s first surviving set of septuplets Kenny Jr., Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Nathan, Brandon and Joel kept their parents, who already had a daughter, very busy.

According to Obsev.com the babies required an average of 52 nappies and 42 bottles of milk each day.

The couple did receive a lot of donations to help look after their babies include a 5,500 square foot home, a van, a year’s worth of Kraft’s macaroni and cheese, diapers for the first two years and full college scholarships for any state university in Iowa, as per the Daily Mail.

Their parents still worked hard to do all they could to reduce the cost of caring for 8 children and started growing their own vegetables.

Two of the septuplets, Alexis and Nathan, were diagnosed with cerebral palsy and they required the use of walkers. In 2005 Nathan had back surgery to improve his walking abilities and has since taught himself how to get around without a walker.

They graduated high school and all went on to college: Natalie, Kelsey, Nathan and Joel took up scholarships offered by private Hannibal-LaGrange University in Hannibal in Missouri.

Kenny and Alexis chose to stay closer to home and attended Des Moines Area Community College, and Brandon enlisted in the United States Army.

The siblings who graduated from college this spring say attending college was their first taste of independence.

Kelsey said going away to college has been a growth experience for the siblings because all five are getting a taste of real independence for the first time.

“Growing up, we were always together,” Kelsey told the Herald-Whig.

“Whatever we did, wherever we went, we were always together,” added Kelsey, who majored in public relations and now hopes to get a job in the media.

“I think that being able to come to HLGU gave us our own experience to be independent and to showcase our different talents and be able to dive deep into what we want to learn and what we want our professions to be. We’re not just the seven septuplets. We’re becoming our own people.”

Older sister Mikayla got married in 2015 and the septuplets became aunts and uncles for the first time with the birth of her son. Natalie was the first of the septuplets to get married in May 2019, and four months later brother Brandon also got married.

Natalie now hopes to attend graduate school as an athletic trainer, she told the Today show.

Alexis studied early childhood education and wants to work in an elementary school. She has won many beauty pageants for children with special needs, winning the Teen Miss Dreams Made True pageant in 2013.

Nathan is majoring in computer information systems along with his brother Joel who one day hopes to work for Google in the cyber security division, while Nathan enjoys putting computers together.

“Having six siblings, we’re not only the same age but we’re all best friends,” Natalie told Today. “We’re really thankful for the friendship we have.”

These seven siblings are miracle babies and I’m so happy to see them all winning at life.

Wishing them all the success and happiness whichever path they choose in life. Please share.

Say what you will about the internet, but it’s become a vital tool in virtually all our lives.

Not only does it help us to stay in touch with friends and family members like never before, but it also has more knowledge that ten thousand libraries combined. Not to mention the fact that said knowledge is only a few mouse clicks away.

Yep, gone are the days where you have to trawl through dozens of books or seek out an expert if you have a question regarding an obscure topic that you need answering. Today, the internet has a correct answer for… well, pretty much anything you might ask it.

If you’re a regular reader on our site, you’ll perhaps have come across articles that seek to explain certain oddities in the world around us. Take, for example, what it means if you see a giant star on the side of a barn, or what it might mean if you see a man with one painted fingernail. How about if you spot square waves forming on the surface of the ocean close to shore?

We’ve tried to answer all these questions and more. Which is why when we came across a mysterious picture online showing trees with their trunks painted white, we decided to do a little digging.

Now, there seems to be a lot going on in the world of trees. Last month we explained the possible reason behind bent trees that you might see in the forest, while paint splashed upon the bark of a tree seems to adhere to a color code that can tell you things about the tree, including its health and future.

Trees might have an orange dot painted on them if they’re to be cut down soon, while purple markings on a tree might reportedly indicate that the tree stands on private land.

But what about trees that are painted white?

Well, we’ll admit to not having a clue what this meant before we did some reading up on the subject (thanks, internet). As per reports, trees are actually painted white in winter to protect them from getting sunburned!

No, we’re not joking, it’s not just deathly pale middle-aged men who need to be wary of the sun’s rays as they lie outside the shade on a tropical beach with their headphones in. Trees do too, apparently.

Now, given that the overwhelming majority of trees are outside, they’re naturally subject to temperature changes. The sun can heat up a tree’s bark during the day, causing it to grow. When the temperature drops at night, however, the bark can cool down and rapidly shrink.

Such changes can end up splitting the bark, in turn damaging the tree’s trunk.

And this is where the aforementioned white paint comes in. When a layer is applied to a tree, it helps to reflect the sun’s rays, thus preventing the trunk from getting too hot during in the day.

Who knew? Not us! Had you heard of this process before? Let us know in the comments.