Pictures of Brooklyn Carroll lined the fairways at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary on Monday. They were a reminder of the tragedy that brought the golfers there and the purpose behind each of their swings.
“It’s a somber feeling, but also taking that tragedy and turning that into action is really why we’re here today,” Carroll family friend Allison Mazzotta said.
She helped organize the inaugural Brooklyn Mae Carroll Invitational. The golf tournament, dedicated to boating safety, was put on by the foundation named after Carroll.
The 10-year-old from Apex was killed last year after being hit by a boat while swimming at Harris Lake.
More than a year later, the golf tournament seeks to raise money to promote safe boating on area waterways, including funding for trauma kits stocked with tourniquets at each boat ramp to aid injured boaters.
“Every single second counts,” Moncure Fire Department Captain Davis Maddox said. “10 minutes waiting while you’re bleeding is a really long time. Something that takes you 10 seconds to put on can fundamentally change someone’s outcome.”
The tournament featured nods to Carroll’s favorite things, like the movie Happy Gilmore.
Golfers traded Polo shirts for hockey sweaters, putted with hockey sticks, and teed off by shooting a ball out of an air cannon.
“If Brooklyn was here with us, I know she would be at that hole shooting the air cannon. She would be the one running the jerseys back and forth. She would be the one putting with the hockey sticks,” Mazzotta said.
Quinten Kight, the man charged with driving the boat when it hit Carroll, was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty last month to charges including second-degree murder and death by impaired boating. Investigators say they found nearly 40 empty beer cans on board.
The boat’s owner, Annemarie Flanigan, is also charged and due in court next month. Her lawyer recently asked a judge to change her release conditions. Flanigan’s lawyer did not immediately respond to WRAL’s request for comment.
A wrongful death lawsuit in the case is expected to go to trial next year.
A mother of one of Carroll’s friends, Jennifer Stehle, was severely injured in the crash and lost her leg.
“We are spreading the news of boating sober, of designating a sober captain, because this tragedy could have been prevented if that was the case,” Mazzotta said.