Car dealership steps up to help 19-year-old after car flipped on State Street

A Nicholasville car dealership has stepped up to help a 19-year-old who lost his car over the weekend to a rowdy crowd on State Street celebrating the University of Kentucky’s football win.

When Kentucky beat Florida’s football team for the first time in decades, about 300 people poured into State Street to celebrate. There were no injuries, but the crowd flipped a car.

The car belonged to Matt O’Hara, according to the Kentucky Kernel. O’Hara is not a UK student, but was in town to watch the game with friends on Crescent Avenue.

O’Hara’s mother, Amy Rademaker Given, started a GoFundMe campaign to replace the totaled car. The campaign had raised more than $3,200 as of Monday night, but it would turn out O’Hara’s car would be replaced in a different way.

Given posted an update Monday on the GoFundMe to say that Big M Superstore in Nicholasville had donated a 2005 Mazda 3 to O’Hara.

“These guys are truly great Americans,” Given said in the post. “The kindness they showed to us is just amazing.”

Given said in the update that the family was discussing what to do with the funds that had already been raised on GoFundMe.

This story was originally published September 10, 2018 at 8:03 PM.