Taylor Swift Fans Honor Swiftie Killed by Truck Driver With Bracelets – Billboard

Bob Levey/TAS23/GI for TAS Rights Management

Swifties are teaming up to pay tribute to one of their own. Following the devastating news that a 20-year-old Taylor Swift fan named Jacob Lewis was killed by a suspected drunk driver while on his way home from an Eras Tour show in Houston, supporters have rallied to honor him with a special friendship bracelet project and personalized GoFundMe donations.

The friendship bracelet project was started by @swifferwins on Twitter, who posted a screenshot of a conversation with Lewis’ sister April Bancroft on Monday (April 24). The direct messages showed Bancroft — who was with Lewis when he died after the pair attended Swift’s Friday (April 21) show at NRG Stadium together — sharing that she and her brother “had the most fun” dancing to “Shake It Off” and that she “looked over at him and saw the awe in his eyes watching her perform.”

“Jacob’s favorite song to dance to at the eras tour was shake it off,” wrote the @swifferwins account. “I think it would be a beautiful tribute to make some shake it off bracelets for each other to remember him, and to shake off the haters and live fully.”

Swifties have been exchanging friendship bracelets since the Eras Tour began in March as a way to make friends at concerts, taking inspiration from a lyric in Midnights Track 5 “You’re On Your Own, Kid”: “So make the friendship bracelets/ Take the moment and taste it.” The call to personalize some of those bracelets in Lewis’ honor has already received thousands of likes and hundreds of retweets in the 24 hours since it was posted, with Bancroft’s blessing.

Meanwhile, Swifties have been flooding a GoFundMe page started by a family friend on behalf of Lewis’ father with tailored donations and messages. In just two days, the page raised $110,000 for Lewis’ funeral costs, thanks largely in part to fan donations in the amount of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s famous lucky number 13.

Many of the Swiftie donations include touching messages borrowing relevant lyrics from Swift’s discography. “Long Live Jacob!! You will be Remembered!!” wrote one donor. “You were bigger than the whole sky. You were more than just a short time,” wrote another.

According to KHOU-11, Lewis and Bancroft were driving home from the show when they had car trouble on the freeway. As Lewis got out and began pushing the car, he was struck and immediately killed by 34-year-old Alan Bryant, who fled the scene. A tow truck driver who saw what happened followed Bryant, and he was eventually arrested by police.

“Jacob will be remembered as a loving and faithful young man who was loyal to his family and friends,” wrote Lewis’ father, Steve, in a heartbreaking Facebook post about his son’s death. “His last act was to push his sister to safety on a dark street. There is no way to describe the magnitude of this loss and the emptiness left in our hearts.”