PLYMOUTH — Twenty-nine years ago today, on July 30, 1997, this small town’s history was split into a before and an after. Ten Plymouth High School band students never made it home from summer band camp, and the community they left behind has spent nearly three decades making sure the world doesn’t forget their names.

Flashback to that day — the students were packed into a Ford Explorer, heading back to school from band camp, when tragedy struck around 2:15 p.m. on N.C. 45, just a few miles north of town. According to a state Highway Patrol spokeswoman, the Explorer skidded sideways directly into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer rig.

Officials later said the rain-soaked highway had made the road treacherous, a contributing factor in the driver losing control as he attempted the pass.

Killed in the crash were Damien Burden, 17, who was driving the Explorer, and his younger brother Bobby Burden, 15. Also killed were Rico Blount, 14; Rashad Malik, 15; Norman Wilson Jr., 15; Clayton Chesson II, 14; Erica Downing, 15; Christy Toodle, 15; and Felicia Davis, 15. Marcus Bratts, 16, died later at Washington County Hospital. All 10 had been riding together in the Explorer.

They became known to the town, and later to the state, as the Band of Angels.

Thursday, Plymouth Mayor Crystal Davis marked the anniversary with a statement honoring the students and the families who have carried their memory for nearly three decades.

“On July 30, 1997, the Town of Plymouth experienced a loss that forever changed our community. Ten young lives were taken too soon, leaving behind families, friends, classmates, and a community that continues to remember them with love,” Davis said.

“Today, we pause to honor the Band of Angels. These young people were not just a part of our history; they were sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends, and cherished classmates who brought joy, laughter, and memories to those who knew them.”

Davis said the students’ impact has outlasted their short time in Plymouth. “Although their time with us was far too short, the impact of their lives continues to be felt. Their memories remain a part of Plymouth’s story, and their names continue to be held close by the many hearts they touched.”

She also acknowledged the families who have kept vigil over the memory of their children for 29 years. “We also remember the families who have carried their loved ones’ memories with strength, faith, and love throughout the years. Their continued remembrance is a testament to the lasting bond that can never be broken.”

Davis closed her tribute with a call for continued remembrance: “May we always remember the Band of Angels and honor their lives with compassion, kindness, and love. May God continue to bless and comfort every family connected to these young people.”

For Myrtle Bowser Brown, whose daughter Felicia Davis was among the ten killed, remembrance has never been automatic — it’s something she has had to build, year after year, herself.

Brown founded the A Band of Angels Scholarship to keep her daughter’s name, and the names of the other nine students, alive in a town she feels has too often let their memory fade into the background.

“People grieve differently,” Brown said. “But I don’t want people to forget them. It was 10 teenagers for God’s sake. At the time it was the worst accident in the history of North Carolina.”

Her frustration is aimed, in part, at institutions she believes should be doing more. “How can the school not recognize them each year,” she said. “Their names have become a whisper or non-existent.”

But not in her house. Not for her daughter, and not for her niece, Christy Toodle, who also died in the crash.

“Not my daughter and niece,” Brown said. “Because every year since 2017, we come together and celebrate Felicia and Christy’s life.”

Nearly three decades after the crash, the story of the Band of Angels remains one of Plymouth’s defining tragedies — a single afternoon on N.C. 45 that took ten teenagers who had spent their summer making music together and never got the chance to come home.

Through Mayor Davis’s public tributes and Myrtle Bowser Brown’s scholarship and yearly celebrations of her daughter’s and niece’s lives, the town continues to wrestle with the same question Brown has carried since 1997: how do you make sure ten names never become a whisper?

For at least one family, the answer has been simple — show up, every year, and say their names out loud.