After teen's fatal crash, family launches fund

Nikki Kantor, 17, had just received her driver's license and was to buy her first car. She had done well enough at Harborfields High School to plan on graduating early in December.

Her family described her as an "old soul." Her mother, Joanne Lombardi, 41, said, "She just understood life a little different from other 17-year-olds."

Kantor died July 21 shortly after her car slammed into a tree in Greenlawn. And now her family wants to celebrate her life by establishing a scholarship fund in her name.

The Nikki Kantor Memorial Scholarship Fund will go toward funding secondary education for dancers from Elite Dance Centre in East Northport, where Kantor, who began dancing at 3, last trained.

"She loved to make people laugh," her mother said. "She was very fun-loving. She knew everyone and she talked to everyone."

Kantor, who was born in Florida, spent most of her life on Long Island. She excelled academically, was set to begin her senior year of high school this fall and planned to study nursing. She was also the glue of the family.

"Nikki was able to help us get through. She made me feel like I could do anything," her mother said. Her father, Michael Kantor, 48, agreed. "She taught people to be yourself," he said.

Now, her family is left to dwell on the lessons she taught them. "She would tell me not to worry about what people thought of me," said her sister Alexandra, 14, who will be a freshman at Harborfields High School this fall. "She told me to be who you want to be."

"She was always there to guide people," her sister said. "She would do things for you that made you know she loved you."

Malorie Cox, Kantor's dance teacher and studio director, said Kantor began dancing at the studio in 2005, joined the studio's traveling competitive team in 2007, and studied tap, lyrical, jazz, ballet and hip-hop.

"She was very much so a role model and a leader," she said.

The accident's cause remains a mystery. Police said Kantor was driving a 2006 Nissan Altima north on Centerport Road at 11:05 p.m. when her car veered to the opposite lane, went off the road and struck the tree. Police have ruled out speeding, alcohol and drugs as factors. Her family thinks she may have been distracted by a passing animal.

Her parents said they hope to expand the fund to develop road education courses for new drivers.

The night she died, Kantor left her mother's home around 8 p.m. with a batch of freshly baked brownies for her friends, her mom said. "She said, 'Thanks, Mom. I love you. You're the best.' That was it."

Donations to the Nikki Kantor Memorial Scholarship Fund may be sent to P.O. Box 84, Centerport. N.Y. 11721.