El Dorado Talent Show Honors Bayleigh Stovall Memorial

May 08, 2010

Bayleigh Stovall

By Megan Strader (EL DORADO, Kan.)

What started out as a way to bring a school together, turned into a way to honor a friend - not able to be there.

"I guarantee she would have been the first to audition because Bayleigh was just a great girl. She was outgoing and everything."

Blayzse Trotter helped organize Saturday's El Dorado High School Talent Show. He was also a friend to 15-year-old Bayleigh Stovall.

Stovall died last March when her car hydroplaned off the road and landed inside a culvert. Her memorial fund was chosen as the main recipient of the money raised from the talent show.

"This whole talent show, and her theatrical side, would coincide and I think it fit the setting for sure," explains Organizer Ben Jiles.

Bayleigh's family was on hand for the show and couldn't agree more. "When they said this I kind of laughed to myself and wondered what she would have done. She would have probably been up there singing or doing some kind of act, she loved the stage."

Ashlie Jack, Bayleigh's mom, says they've been blessed by how giving, both El Dorado, and the school have been throughout the past year.

"I was just taken back, I was very surprised. It was awesome."

Giving that seems to help everyone cope a little better. Trotter adds, "I think we can love her even more, now that she's gone, and present even more to her now than she needed back then."

The money in Bayleigh's memorial fund will be used for a scholarship. The first will be given out next year, the year Bayleigh would have graduated.

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