buzzlady
<font color=purple>Loves to play tag!<br><font col
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- Apr 3, 2003
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Please keep this family and all of the students in your thoughts. It is also affecting the elementery school students, as they also have been notified, because of a delayed opening tomorrow so that faculty can attend the services.
South Amboy mourns teen killed in car crash
Student and athlete is remembered fondly
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
BY TOM HAYDON AND BETH KRESSEL
Star-Ledger Staff
Jessica Ruskuski led a hectic lifestyle for a high school senior.
A member of three varsity sports teams and participant in several student activities at South Amboy High School, Ruskuski still managed to keep up her grades and hold down a part-time job.
The popular 18-year-old was rushing from her job as a waitress at an IHOP restaurant in Keyport late Saturday night when she lost control of her car on Route 35 and crashed just north of the Morgan Bridge, less than three miles from her home, authorities said.
Authorities said Ruskuski lost control of her car and skidded 230 feet sideways before hitting a curb and becoming airborne, striking trees and a chain-link fence. Authorities said Ruskuski was traveling at an "extremely excessive speed."
Ruskuski, who was thrown 20 feet from the car, was not wearing a seat belt, police said.
Ruskuski was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where she was pronounced dead about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Yesterday, scores of people across the tiny city mourned her death. Memorials were set up at the high school, at the accident scene on Route 35, and at a park near her home, where she had planned to meet her friends.
"She may have been rushing to get to the park. She was going to come home after meeting the friends," said her sister, Kristi Ruskuski, 20, a sophomore at Temple University, who came home for the weekend to watch her sister play in a doubleheader Friday with the South Amboy High School girls softball varsity team.
Ruskuski's boyfriend, Frank Wahler, said he was waiting for her at the Sixth Street park after midnight Sunday when he left and drove to her house and saw police cars parked outside. Family members told him about the accident, and they raced to the hospital.
Sixty friends and relatives kept a vigil in Ruskuski's room in the hospital's intensive care unit, her sister said.
"We went to the hospital as soon as we heard (about the accident). We were there all night and the next day," said the sister.
Ruskuski and Wahler, both seniors at the city high school, had made plans for their senior prom. The couple, who had been dating for a year, was a top contender for prom king and queen, school officials and friends said.
After her prom, Ruskuski planned to cut off her hair and donate it to a charity that creates wigs for cancer victims, her great- aunt Jean Hourahan said.
"Just how pretty she is, how beautiful, that's how nice she was," said Jean Hourahan, whose own daughter died of breast cancer in February.
Ruskuski had planned to attend St. John's University in Queens on an academic scholarship to pursue a teaching degree, family members said.
Wahler said they were going to stay together after graduation.
He planned to go into the Coast Guard, "to be stationed near her in New York," Wahler said yesterday.
Wahler asked a news reporter to express a message for the Ruskuskis.
"Would you be able to say, 'I love you,'" he asked.
Classmates and friends created a memorial of flowers and balloons along the damaged poles and chain-link fence at the crash scene. More than 200 people were at the scene late Sunday, police and relatives said.
Other friends created a makeshift memorial at the park near her home, where they spray-painted a large circle in the center of a basketball court and inside put the initials JR and her birth date, 4/20/86, along with the date of her death.
"There were people there with candles," Kristi Ruskuski said of the basketball court.
At the high school, school administrators set up a memorial in the senior wing of the building, where students wrote messages to Ruskuski, telling her that she was a role model and an angel in heaven.
All activities at the high school, including advanced-placement exams and several athletic events were canceled yesterday. The exams scheduled throughout the week will not be taken until next week, but athletic events will continue as scheduled beginning today.
Grief counseling is being provided for any of the nearly 600 students in grades seven through 12 who want to talk to a professional.
School officials asked two guidance counselors from neighboring schools, in addition to the high school's three guidance counselors, to help meet with students throughout the day, said South Amboy Principal Jose Aviles.
In addition, school administrators will rely on the advice of an expert on youth counseling on how to lead the school in the face of Ruskuski's death.
Betty Khristie, coordinator of the Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth based at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will be at the school until the end of the week and perhaps longer.
Teachers were advised at a 7:30 a.m. meeting to issue hall passes to anyone who wanted to speak with a counselor. During lunch time, the counselors were also available for group discussions about the death.
In addition to earning varsity letters in soccer, basketball, and softball, Ruskuski was on the school yearbook, prom and senior slide show committees. She also played intramural volleyball.
She was predeceased by her maternal grandmother, Bonnie Pyne Lauer, in 1994, and her paternal grandfather, Anthony Ruskuski, in 1979.
Surviving in addition to her sister are her father, Robert Ruskuski, her mother, Kelly Lauer Ruskuski, maternal grandfather, Gustave Lauer of South Amboy, paternal grandmother, Anne Tarallo Grispino of Sayreville, and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
There will be a 9:30 a.m. Mass on Thursday at St. Mary's Church. Visiting hours will be Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Gundrum Service Home for Funerals on Bordentown Road in South Amboy.
Interment will be in Christ Church Cemetery, South Amboy.
The family requests donations be made to Locks of Love, 2925 10th Ave. N., Suite 102, Lake Worth, Fla. 33461.
Her father, Robert Ruskuski said police told him the accident remains under investigation and that officers are trying to determine why Jessica lost control of her car. Police ask that anybody with information about the crash call Sayreville police Sgt. John Bartlinski (732) 525-5431.
South Amboy mourns teen killed in car crash
Student and athlete is remembered fondly
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
BY TOM HAYDON AND BETH KRESSEL
Star-Ledger Staff
Jessica Ruskuski led a hectic lifestyle for a high school senior.
A member of three varsity sports teams and participant in several student activities at South Amboy High School, Ruskuski still managed to keep up her grades and hold down a part-time job.
The popular 18-year-old was rushing from her job as a waitress at an IHOP restaurant in Keyport late Saturday night when she lost control of her car on Route 35 and crashed just north of the Morgan Bridge, less than three miles from her home, authorities said.
Authorities said Ruskuski lost control of her car and skidded 230 feet sideways before hitting a curb and becoming airborne, striking trees and a chain-link fence. Authorities said Ruskuski was traveling at an "extremely excessive speed."
Ruskuski, who was thrown 20 feet from the car, was not wearing a seat belt, police said.
Ruskuski was rushed to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where she was pronounced dead about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Yesterday, scores of people across the tiny city mourned her death. Memorials were set up at the high school, at the accident scene on Route 35, and at a park near her home, where she had planned to meet her friends.
"She may have been rushing to get to the park. She was going to come home after meeting the friends," said her sister, Kristi Ruskuski, 20, a sophomore at Temple University, who came home for the weekend to watch her sister play in a doubleheader Friday with the South Amboy High School girls softball varsity team.
Ruskuski's boyfriend, Frank Wahler, said he was waiting for her at the Sixth Street park after midnight Sunday when he left and drove to her house and saw police cars parked outside. Family members told him about the accident, and they raced to the hospital.
Sixty friends and relatives kept a vigil in Ruskuski's room in the hospital's intensive care unit, her sister said.
"We went to the hospital as soon as we heard (about the accident). We were there all night and the next day," said the sister.
Ruskuski and Wahler, both seniors at the city high school, had made plans for their senior prom. The couple, who had been dating for a year, was a top contender for prom king and queen, school officials and friends said.
After her prom, Ruskuski planned to cut off her hair and donate it to a charity that creates wigs for cancer victims, her great- aunt Jean Hourahan said.
"Just how pretty she is, how beautiful, that's how nice she was," said Jean Hourahan, whose own daughter died of breast cancer in February.
Ruskuski had planned to attend St. John's University in Queens on an academic scholarship to pursue a teaching degree, family members said.
Wahler said they were going to stay together after graduation.
He planned to go into the Coast Guard, "to be stationed near her in New York," Wahler said yesterday.
Wahler asked a news reporter to express a message for the Ruskuskis.
"Would you be able to say, 'I love you,'" he asked.
Classmates and friends created a memorial of flowers and balloons along the damaged poles and chain-link fence at the crash scene. More than 200 people were at the scene late Sunday, police and relatives said.
Other friends created a makeshift memorial at the park near her home, where they spray-painted a large circle in the center of a basketball court and inside put the initials JR and her birth date, 4/20/86, along with the date of her death.
"There were people there with candles," Kristi Ruskuski said of the basketball court.
At the high school, school administrators set up a memorial in the senior wing of the building, where students wrote messages to Ruskuski, telling her that she was a role model and an angel in heaven.
All activities at the high school, including advanced-placement exams and several athletic events were canceled yesterday. The exams scheduled throughout the week will not be taken until next week, but athletic events will continue as scheduled beginning today.
Grief counseling is being provided for any of the nearly 600 students in grades seven through 12 who want to talk to a professional.
School officials asked two guidance counselors from neighboring schools, in addition to the high school's three guidance counselors, to help meet with students throughout the day, said South Amboy Principal Jose Aviles.
In addition, school administrators will rely on the advice of an expert on youth counseling on how to lead the school in the face of Ruskuski's death.
Betty Khristie, coordinator of the Traumatic Loss Coalition for Youth based at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will be at the school until the end of the week and perhaps longer.
Teachers were advised at a 7:30 a.m. meeting to issue hall passes to anyone who wanted to speak with a counselor. During lunch time, the counselors were also available for group discussions about the death.
In addition to earning varsity letters in soccer, basketball, and softball, Ruskuski was on the school yearbook, prom and senior slide show committees. She also played intramural volleyball.
She was predeceased by her maternal grandmother, Bonnie Pyne Lauer, in 1994, and her paternal grandfather, Anthony Ruskuski, in 1979.
Surviving in addition to her sister are her father, Robert Ruskuski, her mother, Kelly Lauer Ruskuski, maternal grandfather, Gustave Lauer of South Amboy, paternal grandmother, Anne Tarallo Grispino of Sayreville, and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
There will be a 9:30 a.m. Mass on Thursday at St. Mary's Church. Visiting hours will be Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Gundrum Service Home for Funerals on Bordentown Road in South Amboy.
Interment will be in Christ Church Cemetery, South Amboy.
The family requests donations be made to Locks of Love, 2925 10th Ave. N., Suite 102, Lake Worth, Fla. 33461.
Her father, Robert Ruskuski said police told him the accident remains under investigation and that officers are trying to determine why Jessica lost control of her car. Police ask that anybody with information about the crash call Sayreville police Sgt. John Bartlinski (732) 525-5431.
