Alamo Community Prays for Hospitalized Teen

For updates about Ryan's condition, visit this website.

will have nightly prayer sessions this week at 7 p.m.  for Ryan.

There was a large poster that read "We Love You Ryan" at the entrance to in Alamo Monday night, as about 75 people gathered to pray for 17-year-old Ryan Buchanan.

The Orinda teen, a senior at and varsity lacrosse player, was airlifted to the hospital Saturday after a sand tunnel collapsed on him at a Santa Cruz County beach during a church organized trip.

As of Monday night, Buchanan was unconscious and in critical condition at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, said Sean Donohue, High School Pastor at the church.

Donohue, who was among about 50 people on the field trip at , lead the service Monday that included prayers, songs, and a time for the community to share their thoughts and feelings.

"This is not just a prayer service," said Donohue. " It is a time of being there for each other."

Of Ryan's condition, Donohue also said doctors are "very hopeful" and that initial brain scans were positive but that it could take three months to "find out what is going on."

Ryan and another boy, both 17, had dug two holes in the sand with a tunnel connecting them, said Mike McMenamy, public safety superintendent for the Santa Cruz state parks district. Rescuers had the first boy out of the sand within about five minutes and, Ryan, who was deeper in the sand, was pulled out a few minutes after that, McMenamy said.

Church members, bystanders, lifeguards, firefighters from Cal Fire and the Aptos/La Selva Fire Protection District, two ambulance crews, deputies from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, California Highway Patrol officers and state park rangers helped in the rescue effort.

Donohue encouraged parents to talk with their children who were on the trip, to help them deal with their feelings about the accident.

During the service, community members sang and prayed for Ryan, some with arms raised to the ceiling.

"Ryan is in God's hands, and those are the best hands to be in," Donohue said.

Bay City News contributed to this report.