ALBERTVILLE, Minn. — University of Minnesota freshman Rylie Saloum was full of life.

“She cared about people and her friends,” said her father, Scott Saloum. “She could rise a horse, she could act, she could sing.”

An 18-year-old girl who had big dreams.

“She wanted to be a movie actress get on the big screen, and so she was pursing her dreams,” he said.

In between studying theatre and German, she still found time to drive back home and tutor two kids in her hometown.

The last time she was home was the night before Halloween, Scott’s birthday. She gifted him a painting created by their dogs.

“There’s some lyrics on there from one of our wedding songs. It was the most special present I ever got,” he said.

The last gift he ever got from his only daughter.

Rylie was walking to her dorm from a performance at Mixed Blood Theatre near Cedar and Riverside Avenues, when she was hit and killed by an alleged drunk driver.

“She was just crossing, she had the right of way, crossing in the crosswalk and this guy ran a red light and hit her,” Scott said.

According to the complaint, Ali Abas Samator ran a red light, hit Rylie, and drove away from the scene. Officers didn’t see any tire marks, indicating he tried to stop. Police found the car he was in not far from the scene. The report said the officers could smell alcohol, and noticed Samator eyes were bloodshot and watery.

“You hear that a lot that people who over and over drink and drive, they don’t learn their lesson, and they end up killing somebody and then they only can get up to 15 years in person, after killing somebody, after repeatedly drinking and driving that’s ridiculous. I think the sentences need to be stiffer here,” Scott said. “He can go home in 15 years at the most and Rylie never gets to come home, and she did nothing wrong.”

Rylie died in the hospital three days after she was hit. But she was able to give other people life.

“She donated her organs and tissue. She saved five people’s lives because of that and changed the lives of 77 others,” he said.

Hospital staff, family, and friends lined the hall.

“It’s beautiful and devasting at the same time,” Scott said. “You’re walking alongside her, and you know this is the last time you’re going to see her. It’s called an honor walk; it was honor walking with her.”

After the walk, her brother raised a donate life flag outside Hennepin County Medical Center where it waved for two days, before the hospital mailed it back to her family.

Rylie is back home with her family in a butterfly urn where her wings are beating constantly.

“The radio was on a sports station, and I was backing up it switched to the Christmas station and Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas” is you, and that was one of her, that was her Christmas song. And you can’t change the station as you’re backing the vehicle up and it just switched on its own. So that makes me stop and have a cry and you know listen to the song, yeah, I hope she you know keeps doing that because that does feel good,” he said.

Her family told KARE 11 Rylie has been saving butterflies since she was in third grade. They even have two butterfly gardens at their house, along with a bed of sunflowers.

“She loves summer and sunflowers,” Scott said.

Now, her urn sits in a room surrounded by sunflowers where her light will continue to shine.

CORCORAN, Minn. — Friends, family and even strangers are coming together to honor the memory of an Orono High School senior killed in a car crash Sunday night.

As of Thursday evening, a fundraiser Luke Knudson had created to benefit the Samburu Project, a nonprofit organization providing clean water for people in Samburu, Kenya, has collected $147,000 in donations from hundreds of people.

On the evening of his death, the 17-year-old was working on his fundraising page—a project that was close to his heart, Luke’s mother Renae Rhude-Knudson told KARE on Tuesday. 

The project was inspired by the Knudsons’ family trip to Samburu, Kenya. There, Luke befriended the family’s tour guides Simon and Beko, who taught him about their traditions, customs and way of life. That’s when Luke learned, Rhude-Knudson said, how difficult it is for the Samburu people to access clean water.

After returning home to Minnesota, Luke was tasked in a school leadership class to create a project focused on helping his community. His experience in Kenya left him determined to do something meaningful for the Samburu people. “He so wanted to make a difference for them, and they were so excited about it,” Rhude-Knudson said.

“When he came home, he just Googled, ‘Samburu, water,’ and somehow found our website,” said Linda Hooper, executive director of The Samburu Project. “He just wrote an email to our info email box, [saying] ‘I’ve been to Samburu and I have the idea that I would like to drill a well for my guide’s family and village. Is this something that you can help me with?’”

Hooper and her team, who are dedicated to providing Samburu people with clean water through hand-pump wells, were eager to help. “This work allows us to connect with people all over the world who just want to do a good thing in the world,” Hooper said.

Since his passing, Luke’s initiative to build a well for his guides’ village gained traction. His initial fundraising goal of $24,000 for one well was met with overwhelming support. Donations continue to pour in. “We are as astounded as his family,” Hooper said.

“He always said when we came home, ‘I can’t wait to go back,'” Rhude-Knudson recalled. Though Luke will never return to Samburu, his once-in-a-lifetime trip has become a lasting legacy.

The Samburu Project usually builds about 10 wells per year, each one benefiting approximately 1,000 people. Hooper said multiple wells will be built by next summer using funds raised in Luke’s memory.

SOUTH ST PAUL, Minn. — It was a phone call Don Novack never expected to wake up to Wednesday morning.

“I got a call around 5 a.m. yesterday morning,” Novack said. “There was a fire at the house.”

That fire at his mother’s South St. Paul home destroyed her living room, sending her to the hospital.

“Very worried, got out of bed fast and ran,” Novack said.

She’s alright – no burns, but being treated for smoke inhalation. Novack says at the hospital, she told him her thoughts while the flames continued burning.

“She thought she was going to die there,” Novack said. “Burn and die there.”

Sergeant Michael Dahl and Officer Aaron Schmidt of the South St. Paul Police were the first on scene. Body camera video worn by the two show them calling out for help, before entering the home.

“Sergeant Dahl and I looked around, tried to find an access point, and that’s when we went into the residence and tried to start looking,” Schmidt said.

“Police department, anybody in there!” an officer shouts on the video.

The video shows the two crawling under smoke and flames, calling out to Novack’s mother to respond.

“Knowing that there’s somebody in there, we need to do our best to safely get into that get into that house and grab that person, if possible,” Dahl said.

The heat became too much, so the pair had to find another way. They searched the outside of the home, eventually spotting her in a back window.

They broke the window, crawling over the furniture to find her lying in bed.

“I had her grab my shoulders, one thing that she said that I’ll always remember is fire, I’m scared,” Schmidt said. “Just having that, having her say that to me, made it little bit bigger to make sure that she got out and was safe.”

Both Schmidt and Dahl won’t admit that they’re hero’s, simply saying that what they did was part of their jobs.

“We think of them as patrolling a neighborhood, but, to get on their hands and knees and crawling in a burning home, that takes a special person,” he said.

Novack has started a GoFundMe to help cover costs to repair and rebuild his mother’s home. You can find that fundraising page here.

Other residents in the home tell KARE 11 they’ve also lost a tiger-striped male cat. They say he doesn’t like being picked up, but will respond to food.

That cat was last seen in the 100 block of Frost Street in South St. Paul.