Dozens of people from across the province were batting and pitching on the fields of the Cloverdale Athletic Park to honour the memory of a young Surrey softball player who was killed by a suspected drunk driver.
Kassandra Kaulius was heading home from a ball game the night of May 3, 2011, when the suspect, Natasha Warren, slammed her van into Kaulius’s car at 152nd Street and 64th Avenue in Surrey – three blocks from Kaulius’s home.
“Teammates, ex-teammates, her rivalry teams that she used to play against have all gathered today to play ball,” said Kaulius’s mother Markita, “we have twenty-six teams that have come.”
They played the game Kaulius loved so much at the very park she was coming home from when she was struck and killed.
Proceeds from the tournament go towards the Kassandra Kaulius Scholarship fund, which provides scholarships to female students wanting to pursue post-secondary education. In the last two years, they have provided eight scholarships.
Markita Kaulius said her daughter was working two jobs and attending the University of the Fraser Valley, studying to be a teacher at the time of her death.
“She was always giving back to the community,” said Kaulius.
She also adds that there is a serious note to the fundraising effort.
“We ask that they please don’t drink and drive because it’s devastating to a family to lose a loved one in this type of crime.”
Kaulius’s mother believes that B.C.’s new liquor laws will contribute to a higher number of drinking and driving related deaths.
“I’m very angry. I think now that the laws are much more lax, we are going to see fatalities rise again.”
“There will be many more families like us.”
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