BY AVERY GOODSTINE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 10/2/2026
Stacy Gammons-Ankerfelt was hit by a drunk driver just feet from her front door in Auburn, Washington, in 2012. She was on her way to pick up school supplies for her classroom. She was 28 years old. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones throughout the right side of her body. She spent a month in the hospital before she died.
“I never envisioned a life without her,” said Ashley Bonus, Stacy’s sister. “She was my big sister, so I never had to live a day without her my whole life.”
Since her sister’s passing, Bonus has helped to establish a Tacoma chapter of The Bar Fairies, a nonprofit that seeks to promote sober driving choices and DUI prevention and provide support to those who have lost someone to drunk driving.
Bar Fairies began in Flathead Valley, Montana, in memory of Bobby Dewbre, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver while crossing the highway after celebrating his 21st birthday.
His mother, Beth McBride, and sister, Carli Seymour, were inspired to start placing $5 coffee gift cards on vehicles left overnight at bars and restaurants on the weekends. It was a way for them to say thank you to those who chose not to drive after drinking.
Now, Bar Fairies has started to grow into a national movement fighting for stronger DUI laws and supporting families affected by drunk drivers.
After coming across Bar Fairies on her social media, Bonus felt compelled to bring it to Tacoma and has since taken on a Bar Fairies director role in Washington.
“Bar Fairies has been the easiest thing I’ve ever sold to people,” she said. “Often, when you talk about stuff involving impaired driving and deaths, it’s very awkward for people. They turn away and they never talk to you again, and that’s a really uncomfortable thing. But Bar Fairies is really a new, fun spin on that, and it’s just like the opposite. It’s rewarding good behavior.”
Bonus said one of the main missions behind Bar Fairies is to encourage people to take a moment to think about their actions and to reward people who made the right choice.
“We know people are going to drink,” she said. “It only takes a minute to make a plan if you’re going to be going out and doing something, and I think that’s where people, kind of, don’t take that step.”
It’s a simple way to make people smile and hopefully help change the culture surrounding drunk driving and how people talk about it, Bonus added.
Along with Bonus and her mom, four other volunteers give out the coffee gift cards. They go out one or two weekends a month and try to leave 20 gift cards each time. Bonus said they aren’t able to find 20 cars every weekend, but she has noticed an increase in cars left in bar parking lots over the weekend, which she said is “rewarding.”
Bonus said she has received some thank-yous from people who have received a Bar Fairies card on their windshield.
“I think just the fact that my sister’s name is still out there 14 years later, and people know her through me, it’s like, that was my promise I made her,” Bonus said. “I would keep her memory alive, and I feel like I’ve done it.”
Outside of Bar Fairies, Bonus is involved in other drunk driving-related advocacy. She does court monitoring for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), has spoken at multiple victim impact panels, and is actively working alongside MADD to get the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit down from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent.
“It’s kind of a weird life to do this seven days a week, but most of the time I am doing that, and it’s just that’s the only way I know how to survive what’s happened to our family,” Bonus said.
MADD is gearing up for its fifth year of fighting to get the legal BAC limit lowered. The 0.08 percent BAC law was signed by President Bill Clinton with former MADD National President Millie Webb.
Earlier this year, the state Senate approved a bill that would reduce the BAC limit to 0.05 percent, but it failed to make it through the House. The Washington State Department of Transportation and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission have both recommended lowering the legal limit to 0.05 percent. Utah is the only state that implements a 0.05 percent BAC.
“These are the facts: In the last decade, over 6,000 people have been killed on our road,” said Sen. John Lovick, who introduced the bill. “When a driver has a BAC between 0.05 percent and 0.079 percent, they are seven times more likely to get into a fatal collision. Drunk driving deaths are completely preventable. I am proud that Washington state is taking action to keep people safe on our roads. I know this policy will save lives.”
Another reason Bonus said she’s so passionate about Bar Fairies is because of how many DUI reoffenders there are. Through her court monitoring job with MADD, she said she sees the same names pop up over and over again, including the driver who hit her sister, who got another DUI this year.
A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that nearly one-third of all DUI arrests and convictions involved repeat drunk driving offenders.
“I know if Stacy would have gotten a second chance, she probably would have done a lot with her life and changed the world; she already was with just how she lived,” Bonus said. “It’s hard to see someone get a second chance and just throw it away like that.”
Having seen the DUI legal proceedings firsthand, Bonus acknowledged that it is a difficult fight. She said the sentencing for DUIs hasn’t changed since her sister died nearly 15 years ago. She added that it’s easy to get those sentences further reduced because of how Washington factors in good behavior.
She encourages people to continue speaking up about this problem and reach out to their local representatives. Donations can be made to The Bar Fairies at thebarfairies.org or to MADD at madd.org.
“I always tell people if you take anything from my story, just don’t go through life thinking this can’t or won’t happen to you,” Bonus said. “I definitely lived my life thinking I had a lifetime with my sister. I obviously never assumed something like this would happen to my family, and it did. And when it does happen to you, it completely changes everything about your world and how you see it, and it makes you want to fight.”
