Family host volleyball tournament to raise money for Lindsay M. Benton Foundation


WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  In August 2016, 17-year-old Lindsay Benton was killed in a car accident.

This year her family is celebrating her life in a new way.

After Lindsay died, her parents started the Lindsay M. Benton foundation in her honor.

This year they planned a volleyball tournament to help raise money for different organizations their daughter was passionate about.

“I’m really proud of my daughter and what she has done,” Lindsay’s mother Kellie Ekstrom said.

This was the first year for the LMBF volleyball tournament. A day for everyone to come together and remember their loved one.

“I want her to be remembered as someone who was a giver, a helper, she lived life to its fullest, so in her 17 years she did a lot of things that ya know. She did a lot of things that I haven’t even done in my, ya know time here on Earth,” Ekstrom said.

Her mother said she was a giver at a young age.

Lindsay was an organ donor and helped save multiple lives. Her dream was to become a trauma surgeon.

“That’s how she saved lives, and how she fulfilled her dream of being a surgeon,” Lindsay’s father Brad Benton said.

One of her organs helped save a family friend that her father finds comfort in.

“She now has Lindsay’s kidney and it’s pretty special,” Benton said.

The foundation in her honor raises money for other organizations she was passionate about like the Pretty in Pink Foundation, Special Olympics and Carolina Donor Services.

“Her selflessness and volunteering to be a donor at the age of 16 it is somewhat of a comfort to know she does live on in others,” Benton said.

Lindsay would have turned 19 this past Friday and her family hopes to continue the volleyball tournament every year around her birthday.

For more information on the foundation, click here.

Categories: Local, New Hanover

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *