JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A grieving mother is making sure her daughter’s death is not in vain.
Alexcia Anderson was shot and killed in January a few hours after celebrating the Jaguars home playoff win. She was just 25 years old and left behind a young daughter.
Her mother, Rekita Jones, is hosting a special gala on Aug. 18.
“She was vibrant,” Jones said of her daughter. “She was fun. She loved her parents. She loved her family, and she loved her daughter,” said Jones.
Jones describes Anderson as a fun and beautiful soul.
“Alexcia was my best friend,” Jones said. “There was never a dull moment with her. I was very grateful to be the mother to her that I was. I was grateful for her to be the daughter that she was to me.”
Jones established the “In her Innocence: Alexcia Anderson Foundation” and is hosting the inaugural “Resilience Gala” Friday, August 18 at the WJCT Soundstage.
Jones says the formal event will not only honor her daughter but highlight other families who are experiencing the same unimaginable pain because of gun violence and violence in general.
“Although we are reflecting on our loved ones who are lost or taken due to gun violence or violence in general, we are going to a party with a purpose,” Jones said. “[We are] that we are resilient. We are going to keep pressing forward. We will make it through this tragedy.”
Anderson was a devout Jaguars fan.
A few hours before her death, she was tailgating outside the stadium during the team’s home playoff win in January.
On her way home from another celebration, she and her friend were cut off by one vehicle on I-95 near the I-10 interchange. Then someone from another car shot at them, hitting them both.
Anderson’s friend survived, but Anderson died at a hospital. No one has been arrested in the case.
Now her mother and family are just left wondering why and holding on to memories.
“I cherish and I hold onto them because that is honestly what keeps me moving forward,” Jones said. “For her to be taken and she was innocent, it’s not fair. That is the hardest thing about having to deal with this is that she was innocent but full of life.”
Through the foundation and gala, Jones hopes to help pay for funeral costs for families who cannot afford them, assist in mortgage, rental and utility payments and donate to young developing entrepreneurs
“Being able to relate to someone with that same pain, it gives you [the] will to go forward,” Jones said. You have an opportunity to share a tear or laugh, or a memory or something about your loved one that you lost with them, and they can relate, and vice versa.”
The cocktail hour for the gala is a formal black-tie event that starts at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The program follows at 7:30- p.m. Tickets cost $100 each.
Jones said the goal is to raise $50,000 through the gala.
She said she has a one-year target to raise $250,000 for the foundation.