A6 • Friday, November 26, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
Braxton: Academy students feel impact of family tragedy
Continued from Page A1
that big smile and a song in
his heart,” said Paul Nof-
ield, owner of the Driftwood
Restaurant and Lounge in
Cannon Beach.
Braxton, a manager at
the Driftwood, died Nov.
9 after a three-car colli-
sion near Shelton, Wash-
ington. Kobe died Nov. 11
from injuries sustained in
the crash.
Amber
Hulbert,
Michael’s
fi ancée
and
Kobe’s mother, and their
daughter Kaia, a kinder-
gartner at the academy, also
were in the vehicle and sus-
tained injuries. “The father
passed immediately, and his
son, my fi rst grade student,
Kobe Braxton, sustained
injuries so that they had to
put him into a medically
induced coma,” Hull said.
The event left a scar on
both the academy and the
community at large.
Photos by Katherine Lacaze
ABOVE: Drawing by a Cannon Beach Academy student, one
of many remembering Kobe Braxton. LEFT: Students provide a
memorial for their classmate.
‘A breath of fresh air’
Nofi eld met Michael
Braxton in 2015 in Buckeye,
Arizona, where he also has a
home. Braxton was working
at the Verrado Golf Club.
They formed a friendship in
the following years, spend-
ing time with one anoth-
er’s families and playing
golf together. In 2018, they
started discussing the idea
of Braxton coming to work
for the company in Oregon,
and the Braxton family vis-
ited that summer.
“Michael is defi nitely
a professional hospital-
ity person,” Nofi eld said.
“He could read people and
understand their ways just
by looking.”
In fall 2020, Braxton and
his family made the move
to the Oregon Coast, and he
assumed the manager role at
the Driftwood.
“Michael fi t right in,”
Nofi eld said. “He took right
away to the staff , and the
staff took to him. … He was
one of the greatest managers
I ever met in the restaurant
industry. He had the heart
of hospitality. He also had a
heart for people.”
For Patrick Nofi eld,
president of Escape Lodg-
ing Co., which owns the
Driftwood, Braxton was “a
breath of fresh air.” When
Braxton was hired, he sent
Patrick a message thanking
him for the job.
“That’s the kind of guy
‘OUR COMMUNITY IS GETTING BACK AND WE’RE
GETTING THROUGH THIS, BUT WE’VE LOST SOME
AMAZING YOUNG MEN HERE. IT IS A LOSS.’
Ryan Hull, the interim director of Cannon Beach Academy
he was,” Patrick Nofi eld
said. “He always portrayed
that he was positive and out-
going and fun.”
Paul Nofi eld recalls
Braxton’s extensive assort-
ment of colorful and crazy
shoes that refl ected his
personality.
“He had a Nike collec-
tion that was wild,” he said,
adding even when Braxton
was wearing professional
shoes for work, he often had
on wacky socks underneath.
The Braxton family was
traveling to Union, Wash-
ington, for Escape Lodg-
ing’s managers retreat at the
Alderbrook Resort & Spa
when the accident occurred.
Upon hearing of the inci-
dent, the mood and the focus
of the retreat changed, said
Patrick Nofi eld.
“We gathered all our
managers up in a room and
talked about the grief and
loss and prayed and just
tried to be there for each
other.”
Instead of celebrating
the company’s success and
going through their strategic
planning process, Patrick
Nofi eld added, it became a
time to explore, “How do
we honor our core values by
being family right now?”
“This kind of stuff hap-
pens every day throughout
the world, but when it hits
you, it’s like, ‘How tragic,
what a loss,’” he said. “It
gives you more empathy.”
A tribute to Kobe
At Cannon Beach Acad-
emy, “It’s been a roller
coaster,” Hull said. “All
those things that make life so
busy and hectic just seemed
to stop. You just are shocked
and numb and can’t realize
what has just happened and
what has been taken away.”
When he fi rst heard the
news about the accident on
the afternoon of Nov. 10, his
response was disbelief.
“You’re like, ‘Well, no,
they got their information
wrong. That can’t be what
happened,’” he said.
The academy was hold-
ing its fi rst Parent Teacher
Organization meeting that
evening, and throughout
it, they continued to get
updates about the family,
including that Kobe was in
a medically induced coma at
the hospital.
“That was very tough,”
Hull said. “Everybody was
very caring and thoughtful,
and we had good discussions
there with the parents.”
The school also sent out a
message on Veterans Day, so
families had a chance to talk
about what happened with
their students on a day when
they didn’t have school. It
wasn’t until Nov. 12 that
news reached the school
about the tragedy.
“We talked to the kids,”
Hull said. “We were very
honest, very transparent on
what happened and what’s
going on, and then we lis-
tened, too.”
The students in Kobe’s
class immediately came up
with the idea of writing notes
to place around his desk.
They are fi lled with draw-
ings and messages such as,
“We miss you, Kobe” and “I
love you, Kobe.”
“Our kids, our family,
our community, our teach-
ers, they are very strong in
supporting each other,” Hull
said.
The Seaside School Dis-
trict also had counselor Kaile
Jones visit the academy on
Nov. 15 to provide support to
the students. When it became
clear there was need for extra
time to counsel students, she
returned on Nov. 16.
“Every kid that came to
her asked to come,” Hull
said, adding some students
were able to go back a sec-
ond time “after they had a
chance to think about it.”
Since the crash, Tri-
sha Sweet, Hulbert’s sister,
started a GoFundMe cam-
paign to support the family.
While the original fundrais-
ing goal was set at $20,000,
the amount raised had sur-
passed $77,000 as of Mon-
day, with more than 570
donors.
“We are very thankful
for everyone that is help-
ing and supporting our
family through this rough
time,” Sweet wrote on the
GoFundMe page, later add-
ing, “Thank you everyone
for all the donations and
prayers. We love each and
every one of you.”
On Nov. 11, there was a
post on Driftwood’s Face-
book page stating, the Drift-
wood family “is mourn-
ing the shocking loss of our
beloved manager, Michael
Braxton, who passed away
earlier this week in a tragic
auto accident.”
“Please join us in show-
ing Michael’s family incred-
ible support as they move
through this tragedy,” the
post continued. “Your gener-
osity and prayers are deeply
appreciated.”
Community members and
contributors have expressed
an outpouring of love and
support for the family and
shared memories of Braxton
and Kobe.
“Our community is get-
ting back and we’re get-
ting through this, but we’ve
lost some amazing young
men here,” Hull said. “It is
a loss.”
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DINING
on the
Johnson raises $2 million for
independent bid for governor NORTH COAST
By GARY WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
already attracting signifi cant
money for candidates.
Former New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kris-
tof, who lives in Yamhill
County, has raised $1.2 mil-
lion since announcing last
month that he would run as
a Democrat.
State House Speaker Tina
Kotek, a Portland Democrat,
announced a run just before
Labor Day. As of Monday,
she had raised $440,442.
Treasurer Tobias Read is
running as a Democrat. His
campaign reports raising
$661,018.
Among
Republicans,
Bud Pierce, a Salem doctor
who lost a GOP campaign
for governor in 2016, is the
top fundraiser. He has taken
in $752,939 — with a sig-
nifi cant percentage coming
from his own funds.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
Playground: Could debut by this summer
Continued from Page A1
Mayor Paulina Cockrum
picked up on the idea, pro-
posing Centennial Park near
Trail’s End Art Association as
the location, funded by a mix
of donations and city dollars.
Sturgell’s Quarter Mile
Challenge aimed to collect
enough quarters to stretch the
length of one-quarter mile
— by Berkley’s estimate,
$4,290. She exceeded that,
raising almost $12,300.
City residents donated an
additional $33,600, and the
city has more than $100,000
available between parks
equipment and parks mainte-
nance and repair funds.
“Nothing is set in stone at
this point, but we wanted to
give you the best estimates of
the direction you’re heading,”
Sweet said.
The project now heads to
the Planning Commission,
which will need to grant a
conditional use permit to the
playground. “Planning and
the public must support the
placement of this playground
in Centennial Park in order to
move forward,” Sweet said.
With approval, construc-
tion takes about 14 weeks,
Sweet said, and the play-
ground could debut this
summer.
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