Ashley Crouse remembered at Kappa vigil

Dozens of white luminary bags lined the walkway of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house Wednesday night, just as they had one year earlier.\nMinutes before 8 p.m., members of the house filed out the door and sat down on their porch around a projector screen, waiting to honor their sister Ashley Crouse, who had died exactly a year ago in a car wreck. To remember her, they had collected photographs taken throughout the 21 years of her life and prepared a slideshow to present to Crouse's friends and family.\nAs 8 p.m. passed, Crouse's loved ones filled the porch, spilling onto the stairs, into the walkway and even out onto the lawn. Hundreds of people had come to remember her life.\n"Look at how many people are here," said junior Ashley Rutledge, who had known Crouse since middle school. "Look at how many people she affected. She changed so many lives."\nAt the other end of the walkway, Crouse's friends placed flowers and cards around the stoplight pole of Hawthorne Avenue and Third Street, the site of the accident that had killed Crouse just after midnight on April 12, 2005. A cross with the initials "ALC" hangs on the pole. Crouse had been riding home from an IU Dance Marathon meeting that night in her boyfriend's car when another car hit the side of it, throwing her out of the vehicle.\nSince then, Crouse's friends said they have been trying to figure out how to handle the loss.\n"I think this is a just a good time for people that knew her to get together and reflect on a year without her," said junior Jill Dworkus, who had known Crouse since the sixth grade. "It's good to talk about how we've been able to get over it but still keep her in our hearts."\nDworkus said she and Crouse had always gone to school together. Crouse's friends had been encouraged to write down their favorite memory of her while at the memorial. Dworkus sat on the Kappa walkway sifting through all of the memories of Crouse in her head. She decided her favorite memory was the time she was crowned homecoming queen at Carmel High School.\n"I think it's perfect because she really symbolizes Carmel High School to me," she said.\nRutledge sat with Dworkus on the walkway, recording her own favorite memory of Crouse. Crouse had spent her first year of college at Clemson University in South Carolina, and when she came home for the summer, she told Rutledge she was going to transfer to IU.\n"I saw her at the workout center when she came home for the summer," she said through tears. "She told me she was transferring, and I remember I gave her a hug. I knew IU would be such a better place with her here. It's so true."\nBack on the porch, Crouse's friends and family watched and remembered Crouse's college and high school years, graduation, formals, Dance Marathons and everyday moments. Most of the time, they held each other through tears, but a few photographs of her in Halloween costumes and with funny faces inspired smiles and even laughter. \n"She was always smiling," Dworkus said. "She would always say 'hi' to everyone. She was always there -- I can't remember ever turning a corner and not seeing her face."\nBut Crouse wasn't in every picture. Images of the Kappa Kappa Gamma walkway with the luminary bags from a year ago flashed across the screen, as well as photographs of the walk that thousands of students made across campus in her honor the day she died. In one picture, students held signs with the number 677,415, representing the number of dollars raised for the 2005 IU Dance Marathon held in her honor. During her time at IU, Crouse had been passionately involved with the annual event.\nThrough tears and smiles, Crouse's friends watched photos of her with her friends, her sorority sisters, her boyfriend and her family. But in every picture, she was smiling. Even though she had been gone for a year, Crouse smiled at her friends and family on the Gamma lawn thousands of time throughout Wednesday night.