Hospice Yukon has been busy this week fielding calls from grieving members of the community.

Hospice counsellor Anne Macaire said Wednesday “numerous” people had called the centre, some looking for one-on-one counselling.

Others were seeking advice on supporting the mourning families and friends of Clare Cherepak and Brendan Kinney.

The 15-year-old Vanier Catholic Secondary School student and the 20-year-old Porter Creek Secondary School graduate respectively died last Saturday in a collision on the Alaska Highway at the Hamilton Boulevard extension.

Derrick Gibbons, 18, another passenger in the vehicle, remains in critical but stable condition at Vancouver General Hospital.

“At this point, what we generally say to people is, because it’s so early, the most important thing is for the community to come together and be there for one another,” Macaire said in an interview.

“We’ve had numerous people call, and many of them were representing a whole circle of other people, so I would say the people that have been touched by our services in the last few days have been in the dozens, for sure.”

The tragedy has affected so many people, she said, from students to friends to co-workers.

“It’s having quite a big impact on the whole community,” Macaire said.

“At this point, the actual grieving process has hardly even begun. It’s really this place of shock right now.

“All you can do is just come together and be a support to one another.” Both Vanier and Porter Creek schools have had counsellors available to talk to students this week, from noon to 4 p.m.

Macaire offered some advice for people trying to help or support those grieving around them.

“To be non-judgmental is really important,” she said. “People grieve in different ways. There’s no one way to grieve, so what may not look appropriate to one person is completely appropriate to another. (We should) just hold people tenderly and be compassionate.”

She advises parents let their children, particularly teens, know they are available whenever the youth need to talk.

It can be difficult assisting teenagers with grief.

“Because (the teenage years are) a difficult time in our lives anyways,” she said. “So things can be more intense and it’s harder for parents to reach out to their teens in a way that might be easier with adults.”

Sometimes, grief manifests as anxiety, depression, anger and withdrawal – all things, she said, that parents would typically be alarmed to see in their children.

“But those are normal experiences of grief,” Macaire said.

“It complicates it quite a bit. That’s how we grieve – all those things when we see in our teens normally we get worried about it. It’s when the behaviour is prolonged that we begin to look at it and think, do we need to worry here or not?

Macaire said the hospice has handouts on grief for the public, as well as bereavement packets and a library. Its website (www.hospiceyukon.net) is also a community resource, with information on how to cope with grief and support others.

The Kinney and Gibbons families have set up transit accounts for those wishing to donate funds.

The Kinneys’ account is at Scotiabank is #70920-002-0519820. The Gibbons’ account at Scotiabank is #70920-002-0520624.

A memorial was held Thursday afternoon for Cherepak at Vanier.

Her family, who requested that the media not attend, is asking that, in lieu of flowers, people donate to the Whitehorse Food Bank and the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre.