A new memorial has been established in North Fort Myers to honor Nikola Knight, a teenager who died in a tragic house fire last month. The community has come together to create a permanent place of remembrance for Knight on McDaniel Drive.<\/p>\n
The new memorial is located next to one for Allana Staiano, who was killed five years ago after being hit by a car. Her mother, Christine Gray, expressed the connection between the two young individuals.<\/p>\n
“We 100% wanted to make sure that this boy did get the honor that he deserved,” said Gray.<\/p>\n
Knight is remembered by his neighbors as a hero. His actions during the house fire alerted others to the danger, ultimately costing him his life.<\/p>\n
“He ran into danger, he risked his life, and he paid the ultimate for it. And that kind of character is rare anymore, and he should absolutely be celebrated and remembered for it,” said Gray.<\/p>\n
Gray’s daughter\u2019s memorial has been a place of healing for years.<\/p>\n
“We try to use it to serve as a reminder that this is a community, that there’s more to us than just the problems that are prevalent,” she said.<\/p>\n
Gray said combining the two memorials seemed fitting, as both young people were known for their kindness.<\/p>\n
“When I go down there, it’s a reminder constantly that that’s the only place I have left to really, well, it’s not the only place. It is a physical spot that reminds me that was the last of her. But we every day make sure that whatever we do, it includes her and her memory because for us, that keeps them alive,” said Gray.<\/p>\n
Gray emphasized that the shared memorial is about honoring how Knight and Staiano lived, not just how they died. It will continue to serve as a place for the community to remember them both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new memorial has been established in North Fort Myers to honor Nikola Knight, a teenager who died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-82659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}