PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The community of Bridesburg paid tribute to a beloved nine-year-old girl who died suddenly this week, by turning the neighborhood pink.
It's still unclear how second-grader Elizabeth Ridgway died Monday. Her aunt Gina Butterworth said Elizabeth's parents are still reeling as is her entire family, who buried her Saturday.
"She was always a happy kid, so excited for everything. She loved life," she described. "Always a big smile. She knew everyone in the neighborhood. She wanted everyone to know she was thinking of them."
Ridgway especially loved cheerleading.
"She was the sweetest little nine-year-old I have ever known," said Becky Garrow, assistant director and coach of the Bridesburg Cougars cheerleading program. "She was just a little girl that would run into the gym, excited to be there. She was the light of our program."
Garrow said Ridgway was a very kind girl as well.
"At one of the practices, I was telling the girls how we left the shore this summer and left too late and I wasn't able to stop to get fudge and I was really upset," she recalled.
"She went away that weekend and brought me home fudge. She just showed up at my door one day and said, 'Here, Coach Becky, I know how much you like fudge.'"
Neighbor Sheena Dudick only met Ridgway a few times, but her infectious spirit stayed with her. "Her energy could fill the room," she said.
So when she died, Sheena and her girlfriend remembered how Haddon Heights marked the tragic loss of a young boy, and how residents placed yellow ribbons everywhere.
"A couple of us just walked the neighborhood and put them on telephone poles and trees," she said, "then I posted the reason why and I asked the community to help me paint the town pink."
And they responded. Sheena estimates there are at least 200 pink bows throughout Bridesburg, something Butterworth said means so much to her and to her sister.
"We would take walks around the neighborhood and take a look at the ribbons," she said. "Just to know that she meant the world to everyone. She would love every moment of this."
