PERRY, Iowa — Perry residents were set to hold a vigil on March 11 in honor of two teens who died in a fatal crash, but due to travel concerns caused by the weather, the event was postponed.
Even so, there's still plenty being done in their memory.
Daisy and Walter Fuentes Gavidia were killed after the car they were traveling in crossed the center line while traveling eastbound on Highway 141 Thursday morning.
Their older sister, Edlyn, was injured in the crash as well. The family's pastor, David Sixtos-Villa, helped organize donations for the teens' family in the aftermath, but he didn't do it alone.
"There's somebody in the Perry community who is an angel. I don't know her and she kind of walked me through the GoFundMe, I cannot do it," Sixtos-Villa said.
That "angel" is Erin Owen. She runs the Perry community page on Facebook.
"I reached out to [Sixtos-Villa], let him know, 'Hey, we have this whole community already ready to rally behind the family. What could we do?'" Owen said.
One of those things was helping put together the vigil remembering the teens. Organizers have already collected 500 candles for community members to burn at the event.
"Everybody can come together, have some fellowship, have some remembrance time and also to pray for Edlyn to make sure that, you know, she continues to make the progress that she is," Owen said.
But maybe the biggest way the community has come together—the GoFundMe Owen and Pastor Sixtos-Villa put together has raised over $50,000 to help the family as they're dealing with the unimaginable.
"I have just been so thoroughly amazed with how great this community has been. Just how well perceived everything has been and just how everybody continues to just give and give and give," Owen said.
The vigil, originally scheduled for March 11, will instead take place March 12 at 7 p.m. outside Perry High School.