Tebow, Franklin respond to Twitter hashtag requests
On Saturday, tragedy struck in upstate New York when four high school students were involved in a crash that left two dead and two severely injured. After learning of a nationally trending hashtag on Twitter, New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow and United States Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin contacted the two survivors to help in the healing process, according to CBS.com.
According to police, the two car crash occurred when Dennis Drue of Clifton Park, N.Y. swerved into the back of the students’ SUV. Police have also said that Drue tested positive for alcohol.
Shenendehowa high school seniors Chris Stewart and Deanna Rivers passed away in the crash. Meanwhile Matt Hardy, a football player at Shenendehowa, and Bailey Wind of Shaker High School, who had just signed a national letter of intent to join the University of Tennessee diving team, suffered serious injuries.
After the accident, the hashtags #TebowCallMatt and #MissyCallBailey began to trend nationwide on Twitter. On Monday, Tebow called Matt at about 9 p.m.
“TIM TEBOW JUST GOT OFF THE PHONE WITH MATT! SUCH A CLASS ACT!!” tweeted Matt’s brother, Mike Hardy.
Tebow also tweeted about the phone call.
Franklin also attempted to contact Wind, however, according to Twitter she did not get to speak to her, and instead left a voicemail.
While talking to a professional athlete will clearly not heal the pain and struggles that these two individuals will likely go through, it is still pretty amazing the part that Twitter can take in uniting a community and giving the injured students just a little bit of hope after such a tragedy. Furthermore, for Tebow and Franklin to not just see the trend, but to act on it is something special. The word has been tossed around a lot for both athletes, but they truly do seem like class acts.
