ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — A Treasure Coast family is working to ensure no one else experiences the heartbreak they’ve endured.
WATCH BELOW: 'We don’t want any other family to go through that,' Melanie Trewyn tells WPTV's Brooke Chau
At our recent Let’s Hear It community event in Jensen Beach, WPTV reporter Brooke Chau connected with Melanie Trewyn, a mother whose world changed forever on Super Bowl Sunday in 2021.
“She had gotten in the car to get a pizza for her family and never made it," said Trewyn.
Her daughter, Claudia, was killed by a drunk driver on Indian River Drive on February 7, 2021.
Claudia was a new mother at the time.
“She and her husband had just had a baby; fortunately the baby was not in the car,” Trewyn said.
Out of respect for Claudia’s young daughter, the family chooses not to share photos publicly. However, the family said you don’t need to see a picture to understand the weight of their loss.
Claudia, adopted as a teenager from Guatemala, quickly became “the heart of the family.” She pushed through language barriers and a learning disability to achieve her dream of becoming the first in her biological family to graduate from college.
“It had been her goal to be the first and she did that in spite of not knowing English and in spite of having a learning disability,” said Trewyn.
In the aftermath of the crash, the Trewyn family founded Remember for Change, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing impaired and distracted driving.
Every year on February, they host the Remember for Change Memorial Drive, honoring those lost and urging drivers across the Treasure Coast to think twice before getting behind the wheel impaired.
“We don’t want any other family to go through that and that’s why my husband and I are doing this,” Trewyn said.
As the five-year anniversary of Claudia’s death approaches, her family hopes sharing her story will spark conversations — and save lives.
Claudia’s family and the Remember for Change team are continuing their outreach across the Treasure Coast. For more information on their mission and upcoming events, click here.
