UNC student Danielle Liotta baked muffins and brownies for her hallmates and even the homeless. Her love of baking came from cooking with her mother throughout the years and helping her prepare elaborate teacher appreciation dinners.
When Michael and Elizabeth Liotta needed to raise $20,000 for an endowed scholarship in their daughter’s memory, her mother remembered their time together in the kitchen.
She hosted a homemade lasagna dinner for her neighbors, decking out the community pool in Carolina blue. She hung a Carolina flag, made blue and white bows and wrapped the railings in blue lights and sheer white fabric. The tables were dressed in Carolina-print tablecloths she had sewn, Carolina blue rose petals and candles. Guests ate dinner and Danielle’s favorite desserts off blue and white plates.
Though she had expected a turnout of 50, Elizabeth Liotta fed 88 people and raised more than $4,000. The dinner will be an annual event.
Danielle, 19, had just completed her first year at Carolina when she was killed in a car accident June 2, 2007. She planned to major in biology and chemistry and attend medical school at UNC, a place she loved.
The Danielle Liotta Fund for the UNC Bands awards a $1,000 scholarship to a rising sophomore from the UNC Marching Tar Heels, chosen by the director of the UNC Bands and the instructional staff.
“I knew the scholarship would be the best thing because there was nothing good in the situation,” Elizabeth Liotta said. “The only thing I could do was do something for someone else.”
The selection committee looks for students similar to Danielle, “ambitious, compassionate, dependable, enthusiastic, loyal and spirited” with a “commitment to musical and academic excellence.”
Danielle’s parents and her dog, Frosty, presented the first award to sophomore Mary Leigh Lucas ’10, of Nashville, N.C., at the Carolina-Duke home football game in November 2007.
Jeffrey Fuchs, director of the UNC Bands, said he felt honored that the Liottas chose to support the band.
“They will always be welcome to be part of the UNC Band’s family,” he said.
Their decision to designate the scholarship for the Marching Tar Heels stemmed from Danielle’s love of the band, where she played the clarinet, and music.
After Danielle’s death, Elizabeth Liotta discovered a handwritten essay by her daughter on what music meant to her.
She wrote, “When I pick up my instrument, the world melts away. All my energy and stress goes into playing a beautiful sound. Nothing else matters.”
Her mother said music was Danielle’s outlet for stress from her busy schedule. Danielle’s father inspired her love and appreciation of music.
Danielle made dean’s list both semesters at UNC, and in the spring she took 18 hours of courses and a 200-hour EMT class while continuing to play in the band.
“She was such a committed person to whatever she did. If she was going to do it, she was going to do it 110 percent,” Elizabeth Liotta said.
As a volunteer at Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville, N.C., Danielle was willing to work in any department that needed her, even when no one else wanted to.
One day she took on the dreaded job of purging and organizing thousands of old slides. She stayed until the job was finished, and when the staff arrived the next morning, they were amazed.
The hospital has established a scholarship in her memory for volunteers who display Danielle’s hard work and commitment.
Two scholarships at Lake Norman High School, where she was named salutatorian, also continue her legacy of serving others, as well as another at Mooresville High School where she trained with the soccer coach there.
Danielle once traveled on a mission trip to the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where she delivered clothing and school and medical supplies. There she played soccer with women who had previously not been allowed to play.
A week before her death, she had even cut her hair for a second donation to Locks of Love. She included a note in the envelope that said she was “thrilled to do so.” Danielle was a regular blood and platelet donor, too.
“I want her goodness to live on through others,” Elizabeth Liotta said. “I want to help others because that’s what Danielle always did.”
To make a gift to the Danielle Liotta Fund for UNC Bands, contact Emily Stevens at the Arts and Sciences Foundation, emily.stevens@unc.edu, or go to https://college.unc.edu/foundation/makeagift.
(Editor's note: Danielle's story was written by Lindsay Naylor '08).
