When someone in the BSM community suffers a loss, students, faculty, staff, and other community members unite to support those affected. After Ann Dickey, the mother of junior Elle Dickey, recently passed away, the BSM community gathered to support Elle and her family.

Elle Dickey is a member of the girls’ swim team, and Ann Dickey was an important figure to the girls on the team. “Mrs. Dickey has always been very involved in the team and a lot of the girls grew up with her,” senior swim captain Abigail Gage said.

The whole swim team has felt the loss. “[Losing Ann Dickey] affected us in such a way because we know Elle, and she is such an amazing person on the team and such an impactful person, and really a leader and always super enthusiastic and encouraging. We just knew how devastating it was going to be to her and her family. It was just very impactful how it affected all of us though knowing Elle,“ Gage said.

The swim team decided to dedicate their first home meet in Ann’s memory. “We had our big swim meet on Thursday the 21st for her. The theme was ‘we love to win’ which was Ann Dickey’s moto for her whole treatment, and at the meet, everyone was wearing yellow,” senior swim captain Erin Lerch said.

The swim team also set up a reception after the meet where they honored Ann’s life with a balloon release. “The meet went really well and the balloon release was a beautiful way to honor Ann,“ senior Alexa Reynders said.

Yellow has been a universal sign for remembering Ann Dickey. The balloons released after the reception were yellow, and the student council organized a school wide yellow dress up day. “The student council really wanted to do something to show support for Ann, Elle Dickey and their family, so we made a card for the entire school to sign that we will be giving to them. We also organized a yellow dress up day for Ann Dickey because yellow was her favorite color,” senior class treasurer Ben Larson said.

The campus minister Mike Jeremiah (affectionately called Mr. J by students) has also played a large role in supporting Elle and the students. “The day that we got the news that it wasn’t going to be long before Ann passed away, we gathered in the chapel and we said prayer with Mr. J,” Lerch said.

Elle Dickey has appreciated Mr. J and all of her teachers’ help. “Mr. J has helped me a lot with like knowing that there is like a God out there even though I don’t understand why he would do such a thing, which I don’t think anyone really knows. It is really hard to process and understand, but all my teachers have been super understanding, too,” Elle said.

Ann Dickey was a wonderful person who had messages to pass on “She encouraged everyone to do whatever they do in life for the love of that not for any other reason. She asked our teachers to teach because they loved teaching and asked us to play sports and do the activities we do for the love of them,” said Reynders of Morgan Williams’ speech at the dedication.

If you want to help support Ann Dickey’s foundation you can donate here, and we ask that you please keep Elle and the Dickey family in your thoughts and prayers.