Family and friends gathered Saturday to commemorate the death of a 14-year-old Marana High School student who was fatally struck last week while running across Interstate 10.
Yvanna Vejar, 14, died early Sept. 9 when she was struck by two vehicles near the Marana Road exit.
βShe said over Labor Day Weekend, βMom, you donβt have any idea how popular I am, who Yvanna is,β β said her mom, Maria Vejar, while about 30 family and friends gathered for a brief ceremony Saturday afternoon at San Lucas Community Park in Marana. It followed a remembrance during a mass at St. Christopher Catholic Church earlier in the afternoon and coincided with a quinceaΓ±era for one of Vejarβs friends. βAnd honestly, Iβve seen and Iβm feeling it here.β
Vejar said she does not know what led her daughter and two friends to run across the interstate after leaving the house for a late-night snack.
βI do know this was not the first time theyβve done that,β she said. βI think this was her time, unfortunately, we all have our time.β
Yvanna had just finished her fourth week of freshman year at Marana High School.
Born in Tucson and raised in Marana, Vejar aspired to become a YouTube personality when she grew up.
βYou couldnβt even get mad at her, at all. She was too much of a straight-out, no-filter; she was very loving, caring, outgoing, social ... She was just Yvanna, thatβs it,β Vejar said of her teen daughter.
βShe was passionate of everything, she had hardly any noβs for anything.β
Vejar said she will honor her daughterβs wish and have her buried in Sonora, next to her grandmother. βShe was spoiled by her grandmother, a lot,β Vejar said.
Vejar said memories of her late daughter was helping her cope.
βKnowing that she would be telling me that everythingβs going to be OK,β Vejar said, βThatβs why Iβm doing OK.β
Marana Unified School District has provided support to the family, students and staff, a district spokeswoman said.
βThe studentβs presence will be greatly missed on campus, and we send our sincere condolences to her family and friends during this difficult time,β the district said in a written statement.
Across Arizona, 1,294 traffic fatalities were recorded in 2022, the second-most of any year on record, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. Pedestrian deaths account for 302 of those deaths, ADOT says.
Along with her mom, Yvonna is also survived by her older brother Jason, and her two sisters, Fernanda and Xiomara.
A GoFundMe page created by a family friend had raised nearly $5,000 before new donations were disabled prior to the two events.
