BEND, Ore. — Shannon Guerrero didn’t want to lead the Sunday dance class in Bend she’d hastily planned.

Just three days after the deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary rocked the city, Guerrero woke up exhausted and drained.

“I woke up thinking I couldn’t do this,” Guerrero said to the dozens of dancers who turned out. “I did three dance classes yesterday, and it was one of the hardest things that I did.”

But she knew people needed somewhere to be together, and so she opened the doors of the Dance Connection, a studio located a couple miles from the elementary school. Teachers, students, parents and dancers poured in.

“I feel like I want to do more,” Guerrero told the packed room at the start. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

The class was a give-what-you-can fundraiser for 7-year-old Saylor Graham. Saylor was critically injured Thursday afternoon when a 16-year-old shooter opened fire in a special education classroom where he had formerly been a student.

Three children and a teacher were killed in the attack: 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, 25-year-old Megan Lambert, and an 8-year-old and 11-year-old whose names police have not publicly released at the request of the families.

Special education teacher Becky Drury, 54, was critically injured and hospitalized.

Police said Friday Drury was taken to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, where she is recovering from her injuries. Saylor Graham was taken to St. Charles with life-threatening injuries, according to police, and later flown to Portland for care.

Over the weekend, memorials, fundraisers and gatherings sprang up as people searched for a way to help and a way to grieve. Online fundraisers had reported raising more than $1.6 million as of Monday morning, while in Bend, children put on lemonade and chocolate cookie stands with proceeds going to Silver Rail families. Vigils were held at city parks and street corners, and churches held special services.

Guerrero said that the dance class was in honor of all who were killed and injured at Silver Rail, but it was dedicated to Saylor because she’d danced at the school before.

“She danced with us in Studio 2,” Guerrero told the class. “She’s nonverbal, but you could see the light in her face. She was smiling so big. She was kicking her legs out.”

Guerrero’s pictures of Saylor show her dancing with her blond hair in a bun atop her head, curly tendrils poking out and pale pink glasses bouncing as she moved.

Saylor was born with CASK, an extremely rare genetic disorder that affects brain development and function. She sometimes struggles to swallow food and often uses a wheelchair, but is able to walk, according to her biography on the Sparrow Clubs’ website. The nonprofit network connects families with children that have complicated medical needs with community aid. It has helped raise funds for the Graham family before. In a video on the group’s website, Saylor uses a tablet to communicate.

“Living with CASK-related challenges is full of unknowns, which can be very hard and scary for my whole family,” she said. “But it doesn’t keep me from smiling, laughing and living with joy!”

Guerrero first connected with Saylor and her family through Sparrow Clubs.

The recital she hosted Sunday wasn’t the first time she’s been part of a broader community rallying around Central Oregon families and children with special needs. Saylor was chosen as Bend Senior High School’s “sparrow” for the 2024-25 school year. Guerrero’s daughter Kyla was a student at the school and asked her mom to organize a fundraiser for Saylor’s family at the dance studio in March 2025.

The class they held that day was similar to Sunday night’s, Guerrero said, with parents and children dancing together to high-energy music, but the mood this time was not the same.

In a room outside the dance studio, messages of hope and love for Saylor filled a sheet of paper rolled across a picnic table stacked with handmade cards.

Toddlers drew red squiggles next to young teenagers writing longer messages for the family. Parents embraced in long, tight hugs.

For over an hour the studio was full of laughter and tears. Guerrero led the dancers through hip-hop grooves that had them stepping, rocking and bouncing across the room. By the end of the evening it felt humid in the studio and sweat gleamed on worn faces.

Meg Dawley came to the studio with two of her daughters. She said she first met Saylor and her mother, Danielle, at a dodgeball tournament that Bend High School put on to fundraise for the family before the shooting.

“She just radiates joy,” Dawley said of Saylor. “She had a whole group of family members with her that night,” she added. “The whole gym was on fire for her.”

Dawley knows firsthand the unique challenges of having children with complicated medical needs. Two of her four daughters have also been Sparrow recipients.

Her 6-year-old daughter Millie was dancing around the room in a powder blue t-shirt with characters from the show “Bluey,” one of Saylor’s favorite cartoons too.

Dawley credits the community she gained through the nonprofit as getting her own family through the toughest times.

“The magic of Sparrow Club is showing up to a gym full of people who have signs with your child’s name,” she said haltingly as tears ran down her cheeks.

“You walk in there feeling so much pain and it just falls off your shoulders because your community sees you when you’re feeling so lonely,” she said. “It saved our family.”

Dawley said watching Saylor and her mom go through the same process was inspirational.

“Danielle’s an amazing mom,” Dawley said. “I just can’t imagine what they must be feeling right now, everything they’ve gone through and now this. We think about them all day.”

Guerrero said she believes that Saylor is in stable condition but she doesn’t know anything more. “She’s a fighter,” Guerrero said, “she surely is.”

Trisa Lovejoy, a friend of the family, organized a GoFundMe campaign for Saylor, which had raised nearly $540,000 as of Monday morning. Lovejoy said the outpouring of support from the community has been amazing.

“Every little bit of cheer and love is welcome during this time,” Lovejoy wrote to OPB. “Saylor is a beautiful light and we are looking forward with her and family.”

Guerrero said she hopes she can host another class with Saylor in it, her pink glasses and blond curls moving to the music again.

OPB’s Jireh Deng contributed reporting.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/19/oregon-bend-silver-rail-shooting/