East Valley High Students Make Ride To Remember

Sixteen months after six East Valley High School students lost a friend, they wanted her to know she was not forgotten.

So they mounted their horses last Friday for an emotional ride from their Spokane Valley homes to East Valley High on the last day of school in remembrance of Dawn Malek, their friend who once made a similar trek.

Malek died suddenly last year in a Spokane hospital, two days after she suffered a massive heart attack in gym class. She had a defect in one of her arteries that went undetected.

Friends remembered Malek for a lot of things, one of which was the way she gracefully trotted her horse in front of school the last day of her freshman year at East Valley two years ago.

“Since she road to school, we thought, ‘Hey, we’ll ride,”’ said Atalie McMahill, who met Malek at school that same year.

McMahill and Melissa Radmer started riding from their homes on the north side of Newman Lake about 4 a.m. They met Otis Orchards residents Ryan Tellessen, Amanda McManus, Carman Moss and April DeGroot at Campbell and Trent.

The group had planned to ride with Malek her freshman year, but were unable to for a variety of reasons.

They decided to make that ride this year in her memory. McMahill, Radmer and DeGroot will graduate next year and finish earlier than the other three, meaning this year was the last chance the group would have to ride together on a last day of school.

Radmer met Malek in the fourth grade at Trent Elementary. The rest of the group became friends in high school and formed a tight bond forged by a common interest in horses and 4-H.

“We both loved horses, so that just clicked us together automatically,” McMahill recalled.

That friendship was torn apart on Feb. 11, 1995, the day Malek, a 17-year-old sophomore, died unexpectedly at Deaconess Medical Center. She seemed to be improving and even talked to a friend about coming home from the hospital earlier in the day.

Then her heart stopped.

“It was really shocking,” Radmer said.

“We were told she was going to be OK,” McMahill added.

Now, the circle of six friends ride on, thinking about Malek each time they saddle up their horses. They remember her big, bright smile, easy-going personality and love of horses.

They ride on despite the lumps that well in their throats because that’s what Malek would have wanted, they said.

“If we broke up, it would hurt her,” Radmer said.

Very little was said during Friday’s ride. Instead, memories of volleyball games, parties and riding tips Malek had shown them flashed through their minds.

Malek was a beautiful rider and an outstanding person, they said.

“When she rode, it wasn’t a horse and a rider,” Radmer said. “It was one.”

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