Friends Remember Columbia Teen

Just days after a Columbia teenager’s tragic death, friends and family remembered the girl at a vigil Wednesday night.18-year-old Anna Alioto, a Rock Bridge High School graduate, drowned on Friday after a soccer workout at Northern Michigan University.A group of family and friends gathered at Rock Bridge Wednesday night for a candlelight vigil in her honor and to celebrate her life.The community remember her and her love of family, friends, and soccer.”Anna just wasn’t friends with people on the team, she was friends with everybody,” said Aubrie Cornell “She just had this way of uniting people.”Although tears were shed, the goal for the vigil was not to be sad, but rather celebrate a wonderful life that was cut too short.”She was just full of spirit,” said Cornell. “There was never a time where she was upset or sad.””We want to focus on celebrating what she gave to us and the life she did live because the life she did live was so full and so happy,” added Mackenzie Jacoby.As people shared stories and memories of Anna, they also said goodbye. The clearest message was that part of her will live on forever in the many people she touched during her short time here.”To be thankful for the life that we did get to have with her rather than be sad for the life that we lost,” said Jacoby.Anna was also remembered at her college campus in Marquette, Michigan. On Tuesday night, students there held a vigil in her honor and the school’s hockey team wore her initials on their helmets.