- April 16, 2024
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Ericka's bench references Ericka Dane's quotes and actions on the soccer fields. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ericka's Bench is located under a beautiful tree in front of the OBSC clubhouse. Photo by Michele Meyers
Penny Dane shows the flowers and stuffed animals at Ericka's plot in the Gardens of Glory at Daytona Memorial Park. Photo by Michele Meyers
Penny Dane smiles as she recalls memories of her daughter Ericka Dane. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze girls soccer players and friends of Ericka Dane gather around her bench in front of the OBSC clubhouse. Courtesy photo
Penny Dane points to the number nine in the middle of the fields. That was her daughter Ericka Dane's competitive and high school jersey number. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ericka's bench brings a sense of peace to mom Penny Dane. Photo by Michele Meyers
Hellfire and spice is what Penny Dane called her daughter Ericka Dane. "She was definitely a mini-me," she said. Photo by Michele Meyers
"The day they installed it, the first thing I thought of was — she's home," Penny Dane said. Photo by Michele Meyers
"She's home," Penny Dane said about her daughter Ericka Dane. Photo by Michele Meyers
Ericka's bench is the perfect place for mom Penny Dane to watch a Florida sunset. Photo by Michele Meyers
Perched on Ericka’s bench in front of the clubhouse, soccer mom Penny Dane gazed across the green, grassy fields at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex. There, nestled amid the white squares of the tournament field numbers, was the number nine — the number her daughter Ericka wore on her soccer jersey in high school and while playing on the competitive team.
“At the soccer fields, I was always supposed to be here for her,” said Dane. “I was always supposed to be here to watch her games, help her get her cleats fixed, fix her socks or whatever. So being here, I feel like she’s here. The day they installed her bench, the first thing I thought of was, she’s home. This is where she belongs. She loved it here.”
“This is her legacy, this is Ericka’s bench. She'll be able to watch over the fields forever. That's the place where she grew up and had her best moments. She was no happier than when she was on the fields.”
PENNY DANE
The pain of Ericka Dane’s death in an accident on March 24, 2021, will never go away for the grieving mother, but having the bench in the place her daughter loved the most has brought a sense of peace.
Penny Dane is a veteran of the United States Air Force, and her veteran status allowed her to pick a plot for her daughter in the Gardens of Glory, the military section at the Daytona Memorial Park.
Even though Ericka is now five or six plots away from her grandfather, Peter Vollenbroek, whom she considered her best friend, Penny Dane knows Ericka does not belong there.
“It’s not a place we are supposed to be,” Penny Dane said. “The soccer fields are where she grew up. She started playing when she was 4, and only stopped when she was 18 because she started playing with Daytona State College. She was still coming out here because she started coaching little kids and started helping Alex coach. But she never left these fields. She always wanted to come to the fields. If she’s going to be anywhere, this is where her spirit is. Her soul is here. I mean, she poured her heart into everything she did on these fields. She went from watching planes fly by at the age of 4 to being a beast defender.”
Brett Stoner was Ericka Dane’s second recreational coach, and Penny Dane credited him for igniting Ericka’s passion for the sport.
He noticed that, along with his daughter Riley, Ericka was one of the young players that paid attention and took it more seriously.
“She wanted to pay attention and be the best she could be,” he said. “She not only wanted to play soccer, she wanted to understand it. At a very young age, she wanted to take it and run with it.”
George Bellingham took over as her competitive soccer coach, and the two established a special coach-player bond. According to Penny Dane, he was family.
“When Ericka died, Coach George kind of took a seat from coaching,” she said. “It affected him profoundly, because Ericka and George had the ultimate relationship that a coach could have with a player. She didn’t just trust him with what he taught her on the field, she trusted him with everything. She knew she could call George, and George would make it right.”
Stoner and Bellingham have known each other for about 30 years.
They played soccer together, coached together and both had watched Ericka Dane grow up on the soccer fields.
They knew immediately that they wanted to do something special to honor the soccer player.
On May 12, 2021, they approached the Ormond Beach Leisure Services Advisory Board with Ericka Dane’s story and a request to install a memorial bench at the soccer fields in her honor.
The department has a memorial bench program for people who are interested in donating a bench in memory of a loved one, according to the city’s website.
There are currently 16 parks listed as possible park bench sites. OBSC is not one of them.
But the board granted its approval, and in spring 2022, the application and payment of $510 was submitted to the city by Bellingham and Stoner. The bench was engraved with Ericka’s name and soccer quotes. City staff installed the bench on Monday, Jan. 9.
“This is her legacy; this is Ericka’s bench,” Penny Dane said. “She’ll be able to watch over the fields forever. That’s the place where she grew up and had her best moments. She was no happier than when she was on the fields.”
