For many, the first night of freshman year is marked by trying to fit into a new place away from home, but for Diana Nicoletti she found that home in two newly-made best friends named Maura Brandi and Carolena Elowsky.

“You’ll come across a lot of people in your life,” the advertising and professional writing sophomore said. “But you’ll never come across another Maura or Carolena.”

Brandi and Elowsky both died during winter break in a car accident in Wexford County, Michigan.

Brandi, a landscape architecture sophomore, was described by friends as an optimistic free spirit, quick to smile and with a genuine care for others, a love of tie-dye and the outdoors.

Her creative energy was often expressed through painting the faces of her roommates for game day and drawing pictures with bright colors, Nicoletti said. She occasionally attended the MSU Outdoors Club and loved every opportunity to kick her shoes off and run around barefoot.

And Elowsky, an accounting sophomore, was a high-achieving student with a quick wit, a knack for giving advice and such a passion for Spartan sports that her parents bought her a megaphone for christmas.

“That girl screams louder than any guy I’ve ever seen watch a sporting event,” Nicoletti said. “She was always amped for game day. (She) and I would always be the first ones up on game days, playing the fight song and banging on our roommates’ doors to wake them up.”

Elowsky was a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma and a member of Tower Guard, an academically prestigious MSU honor society dedicated to helping those with disabilities, according to their website.

She spent her summers as a camp counselor at a children’s camp called the Belvedere Club, Nicoletti said.

Her care and concern for others and her ability to always know what to do in tough situations earned her the nickname of “mom” among her friends, Nicoletti said.

Elowsky, Brandi, Nicoletti, and sophomores Alexandria Kuiper and Sarah Chiazza, called themselves the “Wilson Five,” a group of girls inseparable from their first night together, until the accident that took the lives of both Elowsky and Brandi.

On the morning of Jan. 2, Brandi and Elowsky were heading northbound on US 131 when their car lost control and crossed the center line, crashing into a southbound vehicle, according to a statement from the Wexford County Sheriff’s Office. They were pronounced dead on the scene.

Their impact on others had been widespread, demonstrated by the more than 1,000 people attending their funeral and more than 500 streaming it online, Nicoletti said.

They had magnetic personalities, always bright and positive, Kuiper, a kinesiology sophomore, said.

“Maura and Carol had a way of lighting up a room anytime they were in one,” Kuiper said. “Either with their contagious smiles or (their) humor, people were always smiling.”

Contributions in Brandi’s memory can be sent to the Charlevoix County Community Foundation, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council Fund, according to the Petoskey News-Review.

And contributions in Elowsky’s memory can be sent to the Carolena Elowsky MSU Scholarship Fund in care of the Charlevoix State Bank, according to the Charlevoix Courier.