St. Elizabeth Parish held a prayer service for the boy.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 8:52 this morning.
LUDLOW – More than 100 people turned out for a prayer service Thursday night in remembrance of Gus Adamopoulos, the 10-year-old boy who was fatally injured Tuesday night in a boating collision on Norwich Lake in Huntington.
The solemn service at St. Elizabeth Church on Hubbard Street featured several young children.
Rev. Edward Young said the service was a remembrance of a young boy taken too soon, but also an attempt to comfort the parents, grandparents, family and friends left to deal with his absence.
“When your husband dies, you are a widow. When your wife dies, you are a widower. When your parents die, you are an orphan. But what do we call a parent who loses a child?” Young said.
“Children are our hope, our future. They are not supposed to leave,” he said. “We cannot understand the mystery of why God allows this to happen. In our human condition, there is no explanation.”
About a dozen children and adults, grieving the death of 10-year-old Gus Adamopoulos, fatally injured in a boating accident on Norwich Lake Tuesday night, attended counseling sessions at Veterans Park Elementary School Thursday morning.
Earlier in the day, a dozen children and adults attended counseling sessions at Veterans Park Elementary School.
School Superintendent Theresa M. Kane said counseling will again be offered Friday morning, from 9 to 11 a.m., at the school. Gus was poised to enter the fifth grade there on Aug. 31.
“We are glad that we have done this,” Kane said of the sessions.
Seven counselors from throughout the district are providing the sessions.
“We felt strongly that waiting for the first day of school was just too far out for the kids,” Kane said.
Investigators, meanwhile, continue to investigate the boating accident that took the life of the boy and sent his father, 53-year-old James Adamopolous to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield with a leg injury.
The father and son had been paddling in a kayak shortly before 6:30 p.m. when they were struck by a motorboat that had been pulling a water-skier.
The boy was taken by ambulance to Noble Hospital in Westfield where he died.
Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel said Thursday morning that investigators continue to probe the accident and are obtaining statements from witnesses.
An autopsy on the boy is slated to be conducted today.
State police said the driver of the motorboat was a 37-year-old Westfield man. His name has not been released.
Scheibel said she is reluctant to release the boat driver’s name or any other information at this stage of the investigation while police are still gathering information.
The investigation is being led by troopers assigned to the Franklin-Hampshire County State Police Detective Unit. Troopers on scene were assisted by members of the state Environmental Police Department and the Huntington Police and Fire departments.