Kadance Fredericksen, an 18-year-old pageant participant, had huge dreams for the future, according to her mother. Sadly, she was killed in a vehicle accident in Florida earlier this week.

“She had the whole world right there in her hands, and she was ready to take it on,” Lisa Fredericksen, 48, tells PEOPLE.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, which did not identify the youngster by name, Kadance was driving in Santa Rosa County on Monday, Feb. 17, when “for reasons unknown,” her automobile crossed the center line and collided with a tractor-trailer. The authorities pronounced her dead at the scene.

“She was literally three minutes from home,” Lisa recalls, adding that it’s still unknown what drove Kadance to cross in front of the truck.

“I have no idea what happened,” Lisa says, adding that she wasn’t home at the time, but her oldest daughter, who lives next door, heard about the incident from the police.

An investigation is continuing.

Lisa legally adopted Kadance, who had undergone trauma in her early life, in 2017—and the choice to enter the pageant world came “after years of therapy,” according to her mother.

“She came home one day and she said, ‘Mama, can I do a beauty pageant?'” And I replied, ‘Well, okay, but if you do a beauty pageant, you have to talk in front of people,’ since she still didn’t say much,” Lisa explains.

“And she did it.” She bought the worst outfit she could find because she wanted to seem like a princess. “She didn’t win anything,” Lisa adds. “But she was hooked.”

Her horizons expanded further as she joined another service that included community work.

According to Lisa, Kadance began helping with the Ronald McDonald House in 2017, putting in hundreds of hours and conducting an annual lemonade stand, raising more than $25,000 for the organization.

She eventually started her own nonprofit, Kada’s Promise, which gives teddy bears and blankets to children in foster care, homeless shelters, abuse shelters, and hospitals, according to the charity’s website.

Kadance, who competed for the Miss Florida Teen USA crown as well as the Miss Okaloosa County Teen title, was remembered by the Miss Florida and Teen Florida USA families.

“Our pageant community has lost a lovely soul—one who was a real light in the world. She was ambitious, motivated, compassionate, and a leader among her pageant sisters, according to the statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and everyone who is mourning this tragic loss. May we remember her legacy by passing on the brightness she so effortlessly shared with the globe and our Florida pageant community.”

Lisa, who also has a 13-year-old son, tells PEOPLE that Kadance was “generous” and the “most kindhearted” person who “only wanted everybody to be happy.”

Lisa asserts that the child, considering life beyond high school, received admission to nine institutions and aspired to become a veterinarian. In fact, only one day before the fatal incident, Kadance was interviewed and given the presidential scholarship, which is a full-ride scholarship at Mississippi State University.

The family is now attempting to carry on the teen’s memory through Kada’s Promise, asking people to bring teddy bears to the burial on Saturday, Feb. 22, and to give via the charity’s website or a GoFundMe page set up in the aftermath of his death.

“We want the whole world to know who Kadance is,” Lisa tells me. “We want to continue touching as many lives as we can, even though she’s not here.”