Krystal was so inspirational during her lifetime and continues to inspire her family and friends to crusade on her behalf.  The first area that we crusaded for was to close high school campuses in Mesa, Arizona during the students lunch hour.   We felt this was so important because of Krystal and Shayna dying during their lunch hour.  There have been numerous other deaths in our district that also occurred during the lunch hour.  If we can keep inexperienced 16 and 17-year-old drivers off the street for one more hour during the day, they will have less opportunity to get in traffic accidents.  The demographics of our area have changed since the school was first opened in 1980.  On Tuesday, March 8th, 2005 the Mesa School Board voted in favor of closing all of their high schools during the lunch hour.  Too late to save Krystal and Shayna, but decreases the chance of having another fatal accident with our children during this time of day. 

We are also are committed to promoting improved driving skills among the teenage and young adult drivers.  In Arizona there is little legislation regarding requirements to get a drivers license.  Currently, a teenager can get their driver’s permit at 15 years 7 months and report that they have had 25 hours of supervised driving instruction by another adult, and then obtain their license at age 16.  We feel that increased parental involvement and through additional training these young drivers will be more qualified to handle driving on our busy roadways. Some suggestions to help promote Krystal's Crusades may include having a written contract with the teenage driver, setting up specific times each month to talk about driving experiences that have occurred and increasing conversations with your teen's friend's parents.

Krystal was the first teen consultant for a company called The Allowcard (www.allowcard.com ) and they are dedicated to reducing debt in young adults and to improve their financial literacy.  She was the first teen to use the prototype card and gave valuable recommendations subsequently to the companies leaders. We, therefore, would like to support this start-up company and through this organization support another non-profit company dedicated to improving defensive driving skills among teenagers throughout the United States.  Information on this organization can be found at www.driversedge.com.  Jeff Payne founded it and is committed to improving teenage driving. Steve Tepper assists with funding the program through his affiliation with the Bridgestone/Firestone organization.  It is free for all participates and is invaluable with relationship to increasing the importance of driving safer. We hope to raise funds through the Allowcard to help support additional defensive driving courses that “Driversedge” could provide nationwide.  

A third area for which we are dedicated to develop is “Krystal’s Scholarship” that will provide financial support to selected individuals who are pursuing a career in the health field.  Krystal was going to become a physician and she would be proud to help some individual to achieve their goal.  We will have an annual golf tournament to raise money for this crusade.  Her goal was to save people’s lives and we continue to be proud of her commitment and want to continue with her obvious legacy, if she had not died before she could achieve her goals.

You never said I'm leaving
You never said goodbye
You were gone before I knew it,
And only God knew why
A million times I needed you,
A million times I cried
If love alone could have saved you,
You never would have died
In life I loved you dearly
In death I love you still
In my heart you hold a place,
That no one could ever fill
It broke my heart to lose you,
But you didn't go alone
For all my love went with you,
The day God took you home.
-Author Unknown