Heroes Live Forever

Keely’s smile would light up room! Keely was a 4H member since the age of 5. She loved animals and showed Belted Galloway Beef Cattle for a local farmer at local fairs as well as The Big E and The Fryeburg Fair in Maine. She was fearless and showed cattle like she had been doing it all her life. She rescued a dog from a kill shelter the year she joined the military because she felt she had to help. Later she would foster a dog and help train a dog that no one wanted so that it would be euthanized.

Keely joined the Army National Guard after she turned 17 in her Junior year of high school. Once she met with the recruiter she was set on joining! She finished Junior year and then went off to Basic training for the summer of 2013. She LOVED being a soldier and was set on becoming an MP, however, she was sent home from basic with splints and injuries to her legs and hips from the strict regimen of the Basic Training routine. She was getting her legs strengthened and was continuing to go to drills to train so that she could return and complete basic training and AIT. She was discussing a possible career in law enforcement as well.

She was killed in a single car crash on her way to drill Sunday morning December 14, 2014. She is missed by her battle buddies and her RSP unit that have hung her picture in their officer’s lounge where they say she will stay as long as Westover Air Base is there. She was a strong soldier and her comrades say that she was always smiling and telling them to “embrace the suck”.

We honor her by organizing this Memorial Ride for Veterans so that she will continue to give back to the people that she loved and cared for.