Emotions were high in Estaire on Tuesday night as a Greater Sudbury Roller Derby team paid tribute to their friend and teammate Sheri-Lynn McEwan, and made a $2,400 donation to Estaire Fire Department at the same time.
McEwan, 40, was found badly injured in an Estaire home on Oct. 7, and later died of her injuries. Police have continued to investigate her death as a homicide.
McEwan's husband, Terry Boyle, was found dead in the same home on Oct. 27. Police did not suspect foul play in Boyle's death.
“He had a broken heart,” Jenny Borton, the Estaire Fire Department's chief, said about Boyle after McEwan's death. Boyle was the fire department's deputy chief.
McEwan, who was a registered nurse at Health Sciences North, volunteered at the fire station.
Crystal Larose, team captain of the Greater Sudbury Roller Derby team, said McEwan had a passion for the fire hall, and it was an appropriate place for the team to focus its generosity.
“Sheri-Lynn was one of those people you loved the first time you met her,” Larose said.
To pay tribute to her friend, she made a pin that said “In memory of Red Rock Crusher,” McEwan's roller derby moniker. The nickname is a reference to her red locks and feisty personality.
Jennifer Bora, a registered practical nurse, was McEwan's colleague and friend.
“I lured my wonderful friend Sheri-Lynn into derby,” she said.
After McEwan's death, Bora, and her son, Brady Dean, helped the team produce more than 1,500 pins.
“This is a symbol for her,” she said.
The pin campaign took off at work, where all the nurses wanted one. They also gave pins to McEwan's family members and sold them to the public for $2 a piece.
It was the pin campaign that raised $2,400 for the Estaire Fire Department.
Dean produced more than 600 pins on his own.
“She was just a great person to hang out with,” he said about McEwan, who visited their home often.
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