Family of late Bloomington teen eyeing special Dylan Scott show … – The Pantagraph

BLOOMINGTON — For the family of a 2017 Tri-Valley High School graduate, country music star Dylan Scott’s grandstand concert Friday at the McLean County Fair in Bloomington will mark a moment of coming full circle.

Heather Stiles, of rural Bloomington, said her son David D. Stiles V was on the way back from Scott’s show Nov. 3, 2017 at State Farm Center in Champaign when he died in a single-vehicle crash. He was 19 years old.

For the opportunity to meet Scott and hear his music performed live, Heather Stiles said this year’s Ya Bud Festival means that “Friday night is going to be super meaningful.”

She said that and her husband, David D. Stiles IV, run the Ya Bud Club, a 501©3 nonprofit that cooperates on show booking with the McLean County Fair, and raises scholarship monies for a fund named in David Stiles’ honor. She told The Pantagraph on Sunday that more than $10,000 has been distributed to 10 scholars. David’s sister, Sydney, is now 19.

Asked how it feels to be continuing the club’s work, Heather Stiles responded with a near-universal truth: A parent’s work is never done. The Stiles are glad they can continue helping kids, she said, noting that her son had been a big fan of country music.

Pantagraph archives show the rural Bloomington family signed on country musician Craig Campbell for the first Ya Bud fundraiser 2018 at the Lexington. His mother said at the time that her son lived his life to the fullest, and friends and family have viewed to carry that spirit on through the club and scholarship fund. The namesake of the club and festival takes after a common saying of David’s.

She recalled that David’s favorite song of Scott’s is “My Girl,” and that he also liked “Hooked,” which placed 17 on Billboard’s US Hot County Songs chart in 2018.

Scott’s most recent single, released June 2, is “This Town’s Been Too Good To Us.” Heather Stiles said of the new track: “It totally embodies our community… (It) can’t get more appropriate.”

The mother said her husband, David Stiles IV, is “no stranger,” and his son took after him with that quality. If you were walking down the sidewalk, she said David Stiles V wouldn’t look the other way — he would embrace a smile and strike up a conversation.

She said David Stiles was very mechanically included and took pride in his vehicles.

“Our garage was always a revolving circus of (his) friend’s cars,” Heather Stiles said, noting David helped them change out headlamps, tint windows, rewire speakers and install a new stereo.

As a music lover, she said, David also rolled out a big Bluetooth speaker on wheels, and go camping in their family’s 1987 Jamboree Rallye. She and her husband, she said, first nicknamed it “The Relic,” but later changed it to “David’s Drifter,” because they would go drifting in the recreational vehicle. He also camped out his senior year at Tri-Valley High School to get the best parking spot sticker, she said.

“He wanted to be first in line,” she said.

In addition to Scott and Campbell, the Ya Bud music festival has hosted other country stars of whom David Stiles had been fond, his mother said. They include the Maddie & Tae duo, plus Jameson Rodgers, who she said covered Campbell’s song “Outskirts of Heaven” at the 2021 festival.

As each year passes, Heather Stiles said, organizers take notice of “little sunsets.”

“When you’ve lost, I think there’s signs from those beyond that make us pay attention,” she said.

You can also support the Ya Bad Club via direct PayPal donations to the David D. Stiles Scholarship Fund, or in person at Adrian’s Shoes & Repair, 210 Towanda Ave Suite 8, Bloomington, where Ya Bud Club merchandise is also available. Visit the yabud.club webpage for more information.