By Jaimie Winters
One choice has the potential to impact the lives of many, as the community of Derwood, Maryland, learned on May 15, 2011.
This was the night that three young students, Haeley McGuire, 18, Johnny Hoover, 20, and Spencer Datt, 18, from Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, lost their lives in a drunk driving accident.
But while the residents of this community will never fully recover from the students’ deaths three years ago, it was this tragic accident that led them to begin the Happiness Foundation, a nonprofit organization designed to stop people from drinking while intoxicated.
The idea for the foundation started behind a shirt that was designed by McGuire’s father, who handed them out during his daughter’s funeral.
The shirt depicts a little boy and girl holding hands through a heart under the motto, “Happiness.”
“The community reacted so strong and positive to the foundation, you can’t go around that area without seeing at least one person wearing the neon yellow happiness shirt,” said Melanie Vielhaber, a junior at Towson University who grew up with McGuire. “Even here I still manage to see at least one person a week wearing the shirt.”
A family friend, Gary Glick, incorporated the design into another shirt that would be made to keep the memory of the three friends alive. This shirt is neon green and has the names of the three victims on the back, right above the message, “Don’t Drink and Drive.”
“He began giving them out to students for free at school sporting events as long as they made two promises to him: that they would never drink and drive and that they would never get in the car with a drunk driver,” Vielhaber said.
It was from this shirt that the Happiness Foundation was founded.
“It is a no-profit organization created by Haeley, Johnny, and Spencer’s friends and family to raise awareness about drinking and driving in the community,” said Alissa Kirby, a friend of the victims who also attended Magruder.
The three families came together to create this brand that would fight for the end of drinking and driving and embrace a positive way of living.
“The foundation aims to send the message that people should live every day to the fullest, always having a positive outlook, because they know that’s what the three friends, Haeley, Johnny and Spencer, always did,” Vielhaber said.
“It has spread way farther than anyone personally involved ever imagined and is now present in little bits all over the world,” Kirby said.
Kirby, along with other students at Towson, is currently working to bring the foundation to the campus as a student club.
“The club is still in the beginning stages and is coming up slow,” Kirby said. “We’re having a hard time finding a staff sponsor.”
As the anniversary of the accident approaches, the community and all connected to the incident hope that everyone will continue to make the pledge to not drink and drive and to live life to the fullest.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that my friend Haeley has had an impact on so many people, and continues to do so,” Vielhaber said.