Public rituals across the world, including one by Toronto’s waterfront, were held on Thursday night in honour of a 24-year-old Scarborough woman killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia over the weekend.
Mourners gathered at Inukshuk Park, holding candles and flowers, to watch the sunset and remember Danielle Moore, known as “Miss. Incredible” to family and friends.
“This is just one event out of many across the country and across the world and it just goes to show how special my sister was,” David Moore said while speaking at the ritual. “Every community that she went to, people would gather around her and she would give back so much and it really means a lot to see everybody here and everybody that’s been touched by my sister and all the support coming for my family.”
“If you look at all the things my sister has done you can tell she made a difference – a significant difference in this world.”
Friends of the 24-year-old organized the rituals, which were all held by bodies of water.
One of her friends attending the Toronto ritual said Danielle Moore was “a true inspiration.”
“From the day I met her I just knew she was special and I was laughing with her mom about this not too long ago, saying that she was the type of person that could literally walk into a room and just make every single person feel safe and it’s funny because she could literally be friends with anybody,” Stephanie Foucault said.
“She could make everyone feel so warm and so special.”
On Thursday night, Foucault brought a frame containing photos of the two of them with one of the several hand-written notes Danielle Moore gave her.
“This one was the first one she ever wrote me and it’s really special to see the year and how it’s gone and just from the moment we met to now really nothing has changed. She wrote that she wanted to be the best best best of friends and we did that,” she said.
“I don’t think it’s about the amount of time you’ve known someone, I think it’s the connection you have and how close you are and what you share and how vulnerable you are.”
Danielle Moore was headed to Nairobi for an environmental conference as a United Nations ambassador for Canada when the aircraft she was on crashed six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
All 157 passengers and crews members aboard the plane were killed in the incident.
Danielle Moore was one of 18 Canadian victims.
She grew up in Scarborough before moving to Halifax to study marine biology at Dalhousie University. After completing her studies, Moore lived in different parts of Canada teaching under-privileged children about environmental concerns, including northern Ontario, Nunavut and northern B.C. She then relocated to Manitoba where she continued to work with kids in Indigenous communities, teaching them about coding and robotics.
Moore was supposed to begin school again at the University of Ottawa in September to become a teacher.
Speaking with CTV News Toronto on Wednesday afternoon, Moore’s parents said their daughter accomplished so much in her short life.
“She touched many hearts, many lives in this world, trying to change the environment, change peoples’ thinking about how to treat people and the environment – big changes in the world that she wanted to bring,” her father, Chris Moore, said.
Her mother, Clariss Moore, said if she lives to be 100 years old she would have done nothing compared to what her daughter did in her 24 years.
Mayor John Tory said he offered his condolences on behalf of all Toronto residents at the ritual on Thursday.
“Danielle gave so much to others during a life cut too short,” he wrote on Twitter. “May she rest in peace.”
