LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A scholarship fund is being created at Bellarmine University to honor the memory of a Butler High School senior who recently died in a head-on car crash on Dixie Highway.
Madelynn Troutt, 17, was a cheerleader at Butler High School.
According to Louisville Metro Police, a stolen pickup truck driven by Michael Dewitt crashed into Troutt's car after it crossed from a northbound lane of Dixie Highway into a southbound lane near St. Andrews Church Road.
Dewitt had a high level of amphetamines and benzodiazepines in his system, a police toxicology report shows. He's been charged with murder, leaving the scene of an accident, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and theft by unlawful taking.
Troutt's death has left an impact on hundreds in the community, including strangers who now are working to make sure Troutt's memory lives on.
"I don't know these people, but what a horrible tragedy, a senseless tragedy," said Dana Willett-Maier, a Butler graduate and former cheerleader in the 1970s. She has no connection to Troutt or the family, but she does share the bond of being a Butler Bear.
"Butler's little motto is 'Once a Bear, Always a Bear' and that holds true today."
After learning of the crash and events surrounding Troutt's death, Willett-Maier logged onto social media and asked all of her Facebook friends to find as many Butler cheerleaders from over the years as possible. She's now created a private Facebook group with more than 250 members (mostly former cheerleaders) called Butler Cheerleaders Sending Love. The group's focus is remembering and honoring Madelynn Troutt.
"It's heartbreaking, and you don't know what to do," Willett-Maier said. "You want to do something, but you don't know what to do."
She started learning more about Troutt through the obituary and found Troutt had been accepted to Bellarmine. Then, Willett-Maier started making calls to get a scholarship started in Troutt's name.
"I'd been working with our development office when we got word about some people in the community wanting to start this," said Tim Sturgeon, Bellarmine's dean of undergraduate admissions.
Sturgeon said he never had the opportunity to meet Troutt in person, but he did, in a way, meet her through her application to Bellarmine. He said she had wonderful recommendations, especially from a chemistry teacher.
"The teacher talked about what a caring person she was, so you could just see some things jump off the page from that," he said.
Sturgeon said Troutt wanted to go into nursing.
Bellarmine University (WDRB file photo)
"That's what her recommendation talked about, how she was always there for her classmates," he said.
Sturgeon said he wants this scholarship to first and foremost be about remembering Troutt. Willett-Maier is hoping to raise enough money to get the funds to $50,000, which would turn it into an endowment, meaning it would live on for years and years to come in Troutt's name.
"That's why I'm doing, what I do every day now, to make sure that happens," Willett-Maier said. "But I can't do it alone."
Sturgeon said the idea behind the scholarship is that it would preferably go to a Butler student pursing nursing at Bellarmine.
"As the years go on, we'll be able to tell others who get it about Madelynn," he said.
For information on the scholarship fund including a link to donate, click here to be directed to Bellarmine's webpage.
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