‘Let’s be like Kat’: Community holds vigil in honor of teen killed in wrong-way I-90 crash that took 8

Family members opened pizza boxes and breakdance performers prepared to show their skills for hundreds at Waverly Park in Rolling Meadows on Friday night. It could have been someone’s birthday.

Sadly, the event was a memorial gathering for Katriona Koziara, 13, of Rolling Meadows, who was killed last month in a deadly crash on Interstate 90 near Hampshire in which seven others also perished. Katriona was in a car with six members of the Dobosz family – Lauren and Thomas Dobosz and their children, Emma, Lucas, Nicholas and Ella – on their way to vacation in Minnesota when a car going the wrong way crashed into their vehicle.

Family members travelled from Poland to attend the memorial service Friday, which took place at 6 p.m. Katriona was actually born in Scotland, her mother, Katarzyna, said. She moved to the US when she was 8 years old.

Waverly Park was a favorite hangout for Katriona, her mother said.

At the memorial, Katarzyna said she was “hanging on” but that she really appreciated the community coming out for her daughter.

“The kids are really brave to come here tonight, still wiping away their tears,” Katarzyna said. Earlier, Katarzyna described her daughter as her “love, best friend, my life and bright future.”

Hundreds of neighbors, Katriona’s friends – she attended Carl Sandburg Junior High School – as well as peers from The Breaking Program dance school came out Friday night to share memories of Katriona and mourn her death.

Friends, including several girls who lived in the same condo complex as Katriona, described her as someone with “great energy,” “a pure soul” and “someone who’d make you laugh until your stomach hurt.”

One child who spoke said that Katriona had lent them a new pair of shoes when theirs broke during gym class.

Even former teachers spoke out about how much Katriona meant to them.

“It was such a pleasure to teach her,” said Joanna Parzych, Katriona’s Polish instructor. “She brought a light to our classroom. Always had a smile and was so funny. She asked if I’d teach her in eighth grade, and I said, ‘Yes, of course. I’ll see you soon.’ ”

Katriona was described by her peers as an avid breakdancer and several peers from The Breaking Program, of which she was a member, performed in her honor following the service.

“Let’s be like Kat,” said her neighbor Michele Banks, who helped organize the event. “Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. The best way to honor Kat is to know the whole community is crying with her family tonight.”