2 days ago
GoFundMe for Pierre teen killed in crash raises 5 times goal
Pierre and the surrounding community continue to mourn the loss of a young life.16-year-old Aiden Van Balen was killed in a car crash on June 4th. Aiden had just completed his sophomore year at TF Riggs High School. He loved playing sports and was known for tooling around town on his moped.
'You know he was a buddy to everybody and such a goofball, some of the stories that his buddies talked about you know just, he was just a remarkable young man,' said family friend Brie Korkow.
Soon after his death, Korkow started a GoFundMe campaign to ease the financial burdan an unexpected death like Aiden's can leave behind.
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'Bills don't stop coming when something like this happens. You know and so to just give his family some financial room to breathe, they don't have to worry about rushing back to work. They can take their time to grieve you know in such an unimaginable loss,' said Korkow.
Korkow admits she didn't know what to expect, so she set the GoFundMe goal at 5-thousand dollars.
'We blew past that, so I'm like I'll up it to ten, blew past that, and now we are well over 25 thousand dollars, so it's just incredible how people come together, and it's such a great platform to be able to support this family,' said Korkow
Korkow saiys Aiden's parents have told her they plan to use some of the money to start a scholarship fund in his name. So his death will have an impact on Pierre students for generations to come.
The GoFundMe page can be found here.
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