Faculty members honor the life of West Fargo senior

Essentia Health says a local girl is still listed in Critical Condition after suffering a Brain Aneurysm. The West Fargo High School principal tells WDAY that the 17 year-old senior has no brain activity and is being kept on life support while the family waits to donate her organs.

High School Senior Eleni Wilson complained of a headache, then collapsed during a theatre rehearsal for Cinderella. Now, this young lady is being remembered by all as a remarkable, elegant and one of a kind person.

Adam Pankow – Theatre Director: “I first met Eleni when she was a freshman. She had tried out for our freshman musical that year. And you could tell that there was a spark in here. She was happy, bubbly, young woman, talented.”

Pankow says Eleni left theatre after her freshman year to work for her parents' Santa Lucia restaurants, but he was ecstatic when she returned. She took on the role as evil step mother in the iconic Cinderella. But in life Eleni was anything but evil.

Adam Pankow: “She has a way of just kind of turning that room around and making it not about her, but about everybody. Everyone was special in her presence, whether that was her family, her school family, her theatre family.”

Principal Cory Steiner remembers Eleni's short visits to his office.

Dr. Cory Steiner – West Fargo High School Principal; “She would always give me a hard time that I'm not much of a smiler. I said you do it enough for the both of us. She would come in and you'd instantly feel better.”

The student body is shaken. Pankow says the theatre department is missing a giant piece of its family. But for them the show must go on. Students decided Cinderella will still open on November 11th.

Adam Pankow: “It's because of her that we're moving on and the show will definitely have meaning and purpose, not for the now, but forever.”

West Fargo High School will postpone its volleyball match with Davies tonight. A memorial service is tentatively scheduled for tomorrow evening at 7 at the Speedway Event Center.

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