Not long after he heard the news of a crash of a Marine C-130 aircraft in Mississippi, Carlton Thornhill sprang into action.
The Foxworth resident had been a part of Stars of Hope since the devastating Dec. 23, 2014, EF-3 tornado that struck Columbia and Marion County. Since then, he’s traveled to many sites of tragedy across the United States to console families of victims and give a glimmer of hope to the communities touched by tragedy.
“We will be taking existing Stars up this weekend initially to mark the spot of the crash,” Thornhill said Wednesday. “There is already a memorial up there that has been started.”
The C-130 crash killed 16 service members, including 15 Marines and one U.S. Navy corpsman. Investigators are trying to piece together the events that led to the crash of the large aircraft along U.S. 82 near Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta.
“I immediately jumped on it,” Thornhill said. “We’re a holding place for Stars that have already been painted.”
But delivering Stars of Hope to the crash site isn’t all that Thornhill has planned. An event at City Park July 23 is designed to bring the community together to create more Stars of Hope to be shared with other communities.
“We’re planning what we’re calling, ‘Sunday in the Park with Hope,’” he said. “We’ll in the City Park at the stage near the Columbia-Marion County Public Library painting Stars of Hope to be sent to all of the hometowns of those who were killed in the crash.”
Thornhill said the event will run from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
“Everybody is welcome to come be a part of it,” he said. “We’ll be painting Stars of Hope and ribbons as well. We plan to make special stars that represent the 16 who were killed. We also plan to send Stars of Hope on a flight to Arizona, the plane’s final destination.”
Locally, since announcing the project on social media, Thornhill has received many messages of support and offers to volunteer time and materials.
“I couldn’t get over all of the responses,” he said. “We’ve had baseball teams, Girl Scouts and many others offer to volunteer. It doesn’t involve donating anything but time.”
Thornhill said the response, however, is typical of the generosity found in Columbia and Marion County.
“I’m tickled about what this says because of Columbia and who we are,” he concluded. “We’re a shining example of what could be done nationwide. If everyone did this, we’d be a different nation and it would be a different world.”
Pictured Above: Marcelle Strong of Stars of Hope displays several wooden stars in Columbia in 2015. Carlton Thornhill is pictured behind her during an event at the Marion County Courthouse. | Photo by Mark Rogers
