DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A special car was featured at Kettering’s Holiday at Home on Monday, aiming to raise awareness of drunk driving.
Elizabeth Parker gravitated to her dad’s 1971 Chevelle. She was always talking about the car to her friends and hoped to drive it when it was restored.
Unfortunately, she died before it was finished, but her dream lives on through the Lizzy Project.
Ryan Parker of Kettering first bought the Chevelle when he was a teenager and has tinkered with it ever since. His daughter Lizzy loved showing it off, and the car quickly became a father-daughter project.
“This was kind of her project,” Ryan reflected. “She learned to work on things with tools, learned tool sizes. She wanted to dry it, wanted to wax it, wanted to do all those kinds of things.”
Lizzy always talked about wanting to drive it, but she was killed in a car crash. The driver who caused it had been drinking that night and got behind the wheel.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is one death every 48 minutes from crashes involving a driver with blood alcohol content higher than the legal limit.
Now, the Parkers bring the Lizzy Project to car shows and events to raise awareness.
“There are things that can be beautiful,” Ryan said. “She was something very beautiful. Take it from us, but you can still have self-control and still have fun, and that’s why we had brought out her today.”
The Parker family says people should be careful with their choices because one bad decision can be life changing.
“Just the dynamic of everything in our life is not the same,” Megan Parker, Lizzy’s stepmom, said. “It’ll be forever missing cause of Lizzy. So, we miss her every day.”
Ryan said they hope to take it to other car shows to spread the message on the dangers of drunk driving, and hopefully save someone’s life in the process.
