Changing Lives Summer Music Fest and Scholship Fund were created by our dear friend Bob Ausherman in honor of Cort Turner and Reagan Heitzeg two amazing young people.

I’m here to give you a little insight on our son, Cort. He was born May 5, 1993 in Visalia CA. Cort attended Elbow Creek elementary, Valley Oak Middle school and Golden West high school. From the beginning he was an extremely shy child, he relied on his older brother Dax to help him find his place. In his younger years, Cort played football, basketball and baseball with baseball being his passion. We have a lot of amazing memories playing baseball every weekend.

The classroom is where Cort really excelled. He worked hard on academics and spent the time it took to excel. He challenged himself to take the tougher classes. His hard work paid off and he was accepted to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for Business Finance, which is exactly where he wanted to go. It was there that a shy humble young man began to find himself. With every class his confidence began to build. He graduated Cal Poly in 2015 with a bachelors degree in Business Administration with a Finance concentration. Going beyond his degree he was a 2016 Level 2 candidate in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program.

Hit hit the ground running with several job opportunities. He accepted a job at Wonderful Citrus as a Farm Financial Analyst where he scored one of the highest scores ever on the evaluation exam. It was that job and his direct boss Arnold Viduya that helped complete the transformation from shy young boy to a confident successful man.
We tragically lost our Cort on March 4, 2017. Cort was a passenger in a horrible car accident, he fought for 7 days to stay with us but someone had other plans for him. He was the rock in our family and we will be forever broken, yet better people for having him in our lives for 23 years. We want to take this moment to thank all of those who helped shape Cort into the wonderful man he became. We’d also like to thank you for taking the time to visit our website and hear his story.

None of us know what life holds, work hard and live your life as Cort did and “Don’t be afraid to be Great”.

The kind, smart and beautiful Raegan Denise Heitzig was born on New Year’s Eve of 1991. When she came into this world, she joined her mother Gaylynn Heitzig, her father Scott Heitzig and her older sister Morgan Heitzig. Later, her little sister Jordan would join the family—where the three sisters quickly grew into the legendary Heitzig sisters.

Rae loved her family and wore the role of middle sister like a badge of honor. She was the peacekeeper, the voice of reason and the chief negotiator. She effortlessly acquired middle child skills. Which coupled with her generous and loving heart, made her the woman who will always be memorialized as the coolest person ever.

In addition to her central role as a Heitzig sister, she was wildly competitive and a natural athlete. As a little one she played Bobby Sox, where she quickly became a force on the field. Though her real passion for sports surfaced when she found volleyball in middle school and it quickly became her #1 sport. She played for La Joya Middle School, El Diamante High School and several traveling teams. For years, she and her father were gone almost every weekend of the summer, where she and her team took league championships and crushed several records. Raegan worked so hard to be the best.

After high school, Rae later graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from California State University Channel Islands. While attending CSUCI she found her remarkable work family at Social Tap Restaurant in Ventura, California. Armed with a degree in psychology and a love for language and writing, she turned her focus to becoming a high school English teacher where she was certain she would have an impact on the youth.
Raegan embodied love.

In addition to being missed as the beautiful hand that balanced out the fabulous Heitzig sisters, she is survived by her brother Ryan Bickhart and her large, exquisite group of young women, with whom she loved, laughed, and lead life with grace with: Taylor Kent, Kelsey Low, Catalina Ovalle, Niccole Patton, Kaley Reeder and Danielle Stacy. She is also survived by her father Scott Heitzig, mother Gaylynn Heitzig; grandmothers, Sally Martin and JoAnn Pimentel; grandfather Gary Lopes; aunts Shanna Hughes, Tootie Da Silva, Karen Rienzo, Sandra Bickhart, Danee Cannon, Tabby Grabowski, Shelley Woody; uncles Tom Hughes, Richard Lopes, Jeremy Lopes and Colby Pimentel; cousins, Lacey Kerr, Marissa Cocreham, Mateo Rienzo, Brentt Woody, Seth Bickhart, Benjamin Bickhart, Gia Bickhart, Serina Montano, Sam Karjala, Hailey Karjala, Jack Karjala, and Grace Lopes.