Picture this: it’s the summer going into your senior year. You just got home from an overnight visit at your number one school, and loved it.  All you want to do is celebrate with your friends, but little do you know, it is the last time you will see any of them. After a night of partying and celebrating, tragedy strikes and your community is changed forever.

Matthew Angelillo was 17 years old when he died in a DWI car accident in 2004. Nobody at VHS knew Matthew, until June 4 of this year, when Matt’s parents came to Verona High School to talk about their son’s tragic death. His dad, who briefly talked about having been a Hillbilly himself back in the 70’s introduced Matt’s mom Marianne who shared the family’s story.

This assembly was like no other. The students at VHS were silent, focused, and captivated by the things Marianne was saying, and by the videos she was showing. No phones were out, nobody was whispering or giggling, and everyone was very respectful. Every student seemed to be taking everything this woman had to say seriously and genuinely felt for her situation; some people were even in tears.

Matthew Angelillo had just gotten home from a visit at the Air Force Academy. While there, he realized this was exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up and he couldn’t wait to get home and share his experiences with his friends and family. The night he was out celebrating with his friends, Matthew made a horrible mistake that led to a tragedy. He chose to get into a vehicle with a friend that was under the influence of alcohol. Matthew and two other friends got into an awful car accident that night, and while the two other people in the car survived, he did not. His death shook up his community that night and changed the lives of his friends and family forever.

Mr and Mrs. Angelillo’s hope is that sharing her son’s stories can prevent this from happening to some other teen, who maybe makes a different decision because of having heard their family’s story.

“I think a lot of the students were speechless during this assembly because a lot of us could relate,” senior Alyssa Streifer explains, “he was a normal kid who was our age, doing what we do; and one mistake killed him.”