<\/p>\n
Kaitlin Bennett speaks with Matthew Lloyd, vice president of Turning Point USA at UCF, during \u201cFREEDOM: Built to Last \u2014 Honoring Charlie Kirk\u201d at UCF Rosen College on Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shaelyn McClunn<\/p>\n
“I am Kaitlin Bennett, because of Charlie Kirk.”<\/p>\n
Kaitlin Bennett spoke at UCF Rosen College during a Charlie Kirk memorial Wednesday night and described the apology she never got to give him.<\/p>\n
The conservative activist and political content creator spoke at \u201cFREEDOM: Built to Last \u2014 Honoring Charlie Kirk,\u201d held one day before the first anniversary of Kirk’s death. Turning Point USA chapters at UCF and Rosen College hosted the memorial alongside the Central Florida Young Republicans.<\/p>\n
Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012.\u00a0According to the organization’s website<\/a>,\u00a0its mission includes\u00a0organizing and educating Americans to promote fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government.\u00a0He was 31 years old when he was shot and killed Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.<\/p>\n For Bennett, the memorial marked a return to an organization she once represented and later publicly criticized. She resigned as a Turning Point USA campus coordinator in 2018 after a dispute<\/a> with the organization.\u00a0Bennett told attendees Wednesday that she then viewed Turning Point USA unfavorably for the next seven years and resented Kirk.<\/p>\n Two months before Kirk’s death, Bennett decided she wanted to contact him and apologize, she told attendees. She kept putting off the conversation.<\/p>\n Her experience with Kirk now shapes how she approaches unresolved conflicts with other people, like friends, family and those whom she disagrees with politically, Bennett said.<\/p>\n \u201cIs a disagreement worth feeling regret if they were to die the next day, or two months later, never speaking to them again?\u201d Bennett asked. \u201cIs that how you want to leave things? Because for me, it was not. It wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth the way I left things.\u201d<\/p>\n Attendee George Schau\u00a0looks over materials at a Turning Point USA table during \u201cFREEDOM: Built to Last \u2014 Honoring Charlie Kirk\u201d at UCF Rosen College\u00a0on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Shaelyn McClunn<\/p>\n Bennett told The Charge that she has since acted on that lesson\u00a0in other relationships.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter his death, I reached out to people I have bad blood with that I haven’t talked to in many, many years,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n Some did not reciprocate, according to Bennett, but she said reaching out allowed her to know she had extended the opportunity herself.<\/p>\n Other speakers also encouraged attendees to engage with people whose beliefs differ from their own. Jessie Callahan, vice president of the Central Florida Young Republicans, told attendees not to avoid those conversations simply because they may disagree.<\/p>\n \u201cTalk to them. Ask them why they believe what they believe,\u201d Callahan said. \u201cChallenge their ideas. Defend your own. And most importantly, listen.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond disagreement and reconciliation, speakers pointed to ways Kirk’s influence has continued through political involvement over the past year.<\/p>\n UCF freshman\u00a0and political science major\u00a0Griffin Witt told The Charge that Kirk’s death prompted him to learn more about Kirk and his views. Witt said he found that his own beliefs aligned more closely with Kirk’s than he previously thought and recently joined Turning Point USA at UCF.<\/p>\n While Witt’s political involvement with Turning Point USA began recently,\u00a0Edgewater Mayor Diezel DePew traced his involvement in politics further back.\u00a0DePew told attendees he first heard Kirk speak when he was 12 and later spoke with him as a teenager about wanting to pursue politics and public service.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the honor of speaking with Charlie and telling him that I wanted to pursue politics and public service at a young age,\u201d DePew said. \u201cAnd I’ll never forget what he told me. He said, \u2018Do it. Don’t be afraid. They will attack you because of your age, but move forward.\u2019 And that’s exactly what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n