Scholarship fund launched in memory of former UNLV Rebel Girl

By Erin Dostal

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

The UNLV Rebels will have even more incentive to hit their three-pointers this basketball season.

Thursday night, UNLV launched LB3, the Lindsay Bennett Memorial, which will raise money for drunk driving awareness programs and to fund two scholarships for UNLV students.

Lindsay Bennett, 18, was a member of the UNLV Rebel Girls — the school’s dance team — who was killed in a head-on car crash at Interstate 215 at Windmill Avenue in April.

Vladimir Lagerev, 45, was charged with driving under the influence resulting in death and is scheduled to stand trial in March.

People can fund LB3 by pledging a certain amount of money for every three-pointer the Rebels score this year. The minimum donation is $.10 for every three-pointer.

Last year, the UNLV basketball team made 244 three-point shots.

Hundreds of Bennett’s friends, classmates and family members gathered Thursday on UNLV’s Student Union Courtyard to eat pizza, shoot baskets, and show their support for the fund.

“We’re trying to celebrate her life more than mourn her death,” Dilyana Pamoukova, 19, a Rebel Girl and junior at UNLV, said as she took a break from cheering on participants of the evening’s three-point shooting contest. “She had this amazing spirit. She was a great asset to the team.”

Money raised through LB3 will be donated to R.A.D.D., Rebels Against Drunk Driving, and to Every Fifteen Minutes, a national organization that travels to high schools to discuss the consequences of drunk driving.

It will also fund two scholarships— one for a UNLV Rebel Girl and another for a Coronado High School student, Bennett’s alma mater, who is attending UNLV.

R.A.D.D. hopes to create a safe-ride program and hotline for students on campus who need to get home even if they are intoxicated.

“It can benefit so many students in so many different ways, not the least of which is saving lives,” said Roy Conklin, 61, of Henderson, a family friend of the Bennetts. “This whole [event] is so Lindsay.”

Elisa Katz, 20, a former Rebel Girl and a friend of Bennett, organized the event as the assistant director of campus life at UNLV.

Lindsay Bennett was “the kind of person you always wanted to be around,” she said. “The first word you always thought of was ‘beautiful.’”

Katz said her favorite memory of Bennett was when the Rebel Girls had potluck parties together.

No one except Bennett would ever bring any food, and it was always something extravagant and yummy.

Marca DeCastroverde, 29, a UNLV alumna and head coach for the Rebel Girls, remembered meeting Bennett at her dance tryout in 2007.

DeCastroverde said she instantly knew Bennett was “one in a million” when she sat down and cried during her in-person interview because she wanted to be a Rebel Girl so badly.

“I could tell right away what kind of person she was,” she said. “I knew I wanted her to be a part of my team.”

Lindsay Bennett’s father, Michael, said the event was “just unbelievable. It just demonstrates what a great person she was.”