SALT LAKE CITY - Ten years after a woman was killed in a car crash, her family is honoring her memory by making a cuddly donation to the Utah Highway Patrol.
Stacie Mae Gray died in a car crash in 2003. Now her family is honoring her memory by donating more than 2,000 stuffed animals to the Utah Highway Patrol.
"Stacie didn't have any kids of her own but she loved children, she loved her nieces and nephews and it means a lot to us to make Stacie smile," said Jan Gray. "If this is helping other kids then this is making Stacie smile."
The idea for the donation came when Stacie's sister and her children were involved in a non-fatal car accident.
"The Utah Highway Patrol came to the scene of the crash. She had all of her kids with her and they gave all her kids a stuffed animal to calm them down," Gray said.
The Gray family decided to gather stuffed animals, and they received a lot of support from across the country.
"They just started coming in from everywhere Canada, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho and Washington and people have just been so generous sending us stuffed animals," Gray said.
Those animals will now go to other children involved in car accidents.
"It makes me feel good that Stacie has been thought of so much in the past two months. So everyone who has donated an animal in one way or another has thought of Stacie which makes me very happy," Gray said.
UHP thanked Stacie's family for their efforts in gathering the donations and honored them with a UHP coin and Beehive patch.
