The community of Cottonwood, Minnesota came together on Thursday to mark the one year anniversary of a deadly school bus crash that killed four children, including nine year old Emilee Olson, 12 year-old Reed Stevens, 13 year-old Jesse Javens and his nine year old brother Hunter.  

But instead of mourning, the community of Cottonwood celebrated the lives of the young victims on Thursday. They called the anniversary "Our Journey Of Hope."

That journey began tragically at 3:30 p.m. on February 19th, 2008. Investigators say the school bus was taking kids home for the day when a mini-van crashed into the side of the bus. The force of the collision flipped it onto it's side.

Twenty-eight people were on the bus. In addition to the four who died, 14 more were hurt. Rescue crews and passers-by stopped to help get the children out of the mangled bus. Three days later the woman accused of driving the van, Olga Franco Del Cid, who was also hurt in the crash, was charged with criminal vehicular homicide. In August, she was convicted on four counts. Then, on October 8th, 2008, Franco was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.

When the community came together again on Thursday, the students spent time remembering their classmates with posters and notes. Many of the notes were written directly to the victims, including, "Emilee, I miss your smile." And "Hunter, you're in my heart forever."

Students called it an emotional day but one they said they can give back to their community.

Coral Popowitz, with Children's Grief Connection, says it's definitely been a journey and it's made the school so much stronger.

"It already has," Popowitz said. "Just the way they work together to make this day happen and how excited everybody is. We've been checking in with everybody, 'So how's it going?' and everybody's like, 'It's amazing.'"

In addition to the activities at the school, the mothers of all four victims spoke to the media at a church in Cottonwood. Rita Javens, Traci Olson and Candy Stevens stood together after losing their children in a school bus crash on the same day one year ago. The crash took Rita's boys, Jesse and his brother Hunter; Traci's daughter Emilee; and Candy's son Reed. But on this somber anniversary these mothers remained surprisingly positive.

"In some ways I don't think we were given a choice because we have seven surviving children," Candy said. "So we can wallow in this and we could, you know, cry every day."