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Family honors teen killed in DUI crash
A large celebration of life in Apollo Beach helped remember Lexi Ringo, after she was killed in a DUI crash in December. FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky reports.
APOLLO BEACH, Fla. - The Ringo family held a celebration of life at the Waterset Community Center to honor their daughter Lexi, who was killed in a DUI crash on Dec. 26th while in the car with her mother.
The family says that place has special meaning because Lexi grew up going there.
Her mother, Chrissy Ringo, planned the event alongside her husband, Tim, who is Lexi's father.
"I'll always be your mom. She doesn't need me anymore," said Chrissy. "She's in a really good place. But I'm still her connection here."
Hundreds attended the thoughtful event. Family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, teachers, classmates and students of Lexi came to pay their respects. For some, this was the first time they met her family and for others they have known the Ringos for their entire lives.
"It's like missing a part of you," said Chris Holman, her golf coach. "When she passed, it was devastating for a lot of us because she just brought so much light to everyone."
What they're saying:
"She's such a shining light just in general," said Bradley Clark, her friend. "She's a light in the shadows."
A light that will never go out thanks to a mother's love and determination to make sure her daughter is remembered forever.
Chrissy Ringo and her husband Tim set up a memorial scholarship to honor their daughter forever.
"What that does is it still gives me a connection to my daughter," said Chrissy. "It's just something that I'll still be able to brag on her a little bit."
The couple set up a fundraiser for this memorial scholarship. There was such an outpouring of support that they are close to their new goal of $125,000.
The backstory:
Lexi wanted to be a doctor. She volunteered at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and was a top student at her school, placing in the top five students according to her family.
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"She wanted to help people, heal people, save people, and she's still doing that while not being here," said Clark.
"She was important, and, you know, the individual who took her life was," Holman said. "You know, really took something from the rest of us and the rest to the world. Because she could have been almost anything."
The scholarship will be for students pursuing a medical education.
Community Oriented
Lexi was active in her community and volunteered with First Tee Golf Program and Metropolitan Ministries.
"It just makes you proud as a mom that she was able to go out there and have the confidence to do the right things," said Chrissy.
"She's really good with every different type of crowd. She's able to bring everybody closer and find a way to connect," said Quint Breard, her friend.
A Good Friend
Her best friend since childhood, Nephtalee Goring, said she was the first friend she made after moving here.
"We were like Yan and Yang is what everybody said we were," said Goring. They've been inseperable ever since.
"I tried Disney World for the first time with her. She's the first person to ever come over to my house," said Goring. "First person I went on a sleepover with, like just so many firsts. And then we always say we wanted to run the world together."
Her Legacy
Her friends and family vow to carry on her legacy through their work, their travel, their charity and their lives.
"There's so many things that she wanted to try, like visit Italy, which is one of her bucket list, and I want to go there too," said Goring.
"Give them some comfort, so they can see that I'm going on and kind of living her dreams for her because that's been tough to know that her dreams are going to die with her and I hope that all of us can kind of carry that on to an extent," said Clark. "Positivity is just something that I really want to focus on because that's kind of who she was as a person and I think by doing that I can at least show some respect to her."
"This charity will outlast us," said Chrissy. "Long after we're gone, this charity can still survive, meaning that her name will be out there."
The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews done by FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky.