First Posted: 3/16/2015
OTTOVILLE — It was a normal Monday as Jacob Guy and three friends left for school at Vantage Career Center.
But Sept. 22 took a turn toward tragedy at 7:45 a.m. as the carload of teens on U.S. Route 224 were in a car accident.
“No one actually knows what happened,” said family friend Amy Kuhlman.
According to a previous report in The Lima News detailing the accident, the driver lost control negotiating a curve, struck a ditch, then a telephone pole. The car partially overturned and came back onto the highway before veering off the right side, returning to an upright position after striking the ditch a second time. Without seat belts, two passengers were ejected from the car. In the end, all but one of the four passengers would walk away.
Six months later and the exact cause of the accident remains a mystery. The only thing locals know for sure is that 17-year-old Jacob Guy didn’t survive. It was the first death Ottoville School District had in six years.
“He always had a smile on his face,” Kuhlman said. “He was just a sweet boy.”
To help memorialize the teen, the Ottoville Mother’s Club and Kuhlman, a club member, have named the Guy family as the recipient of funds raised from its sixth annual 5K run. Club President Michelle Kortokrax said in years past, the club has raised money for tornado victims and families plagued by cancer.
Kuhlman informed the Guy family about the subject for this year’s race.
“We all sat and cried together,” she said. “They were just very grateful.”
The race is scheduled for March 28. Registration begins at 10 a.m. and the 5K run/walk will start at 11 a.m. at the Ottoville Parish Center Gymnasium, 150 Park Drive. The event will also include a 50/50 drawing, silent auction and baked goods.
All proceeds will be donated to the family, which decided to build granite benches along a new trail to be built through a park Guy enjoyed, near the old Ottoville quarry.
