Nearly 500 mourners from Antrim and surrounding communities gathered Saturday to celebrate the life of Rebekah Warren, the 16-year-old ConVal High School freshman who was killed in a car accident on May 8.

Just a week after many gathered in memory of her father, Larry Warren, the gymnasium at Great Brook School was filled Saturday afternoon for Bekah’s memorial service, an event brimming with song, laughter and tears. In honor of the young lady who was known for her multicolored wardrobe, many mourners were clad not in black but in vivid neon shades. Lime green, Bekah’s favorite, could be found at all corners of the ceremony. Green bowties, green feather boas, green nail polish, green shoes and green garments of every variety adorned men and women, young and old. For those without their own emerald clothes, sparkling green ribbon pins were offered at the door.

Michael Jackson songs echoed from a corner of the gym as a projector scrolled through photos of Bekah with friends, Bekah making zany faces, Bekah enjoying life.

Alan Fahrner is the acting minister of Antrim’s Church of Christ, a position he has held since Larry Warren, the church’s former minister, died of brain cancer on April 26. Speaking the day before the service, Fahrner said Bekah was gifted with a natural ability to spread love.

“When somebody passes away, you often hear these mythological stories,” said Fahrner. “It might be hyperbole, but when you hear these stories about people in bad moods coming to her and her lifting their spirits, it’s true. It was uncanny, almost supernatural.”

Fahrner told of a friend of Bekah’s who, on a particularly bad day at a particularly bad time, received a call from Bekah out of the blue.

“She somehow knew, even if she wasn’t there,” said Fahrner.

Again on Saturday, as friends and family took the podium to share memories, poems and farewells, the room was filled with a sense that Bekah knew, even if she wasn’t there.

Paige Geis read a poem by Helen Lowrie Marshall titled “True Measure.”

“How long we live is not for us to say. We may have years ahead or but a day,” read Geis. “The length of life is not of our control, but length is not the measure of the soul.... It matters not how long before we sleep, but only how wide is our life, how deep.”

“This is why she was such a whirlwind,” said friend Natasha White. “She was packing as much life as she could into every minute.”

Alyssia Warren, 22, said goodbye to her little sister by reading the lyrics of “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

“ ‘Did you ever know that you’re my hero and everything I would like to be?’ ” read Warren, who said the song had been passed from sister to sister from oldest to youngest. “We always leaned on the one below us. ... Bekah was my strength.”

Oldest sister Virginia “Jini” Warren recalled Bekah’s birth when Jini was 11.

“When I found out my mom was pregnant, I was so mad,” said Jini as the audience enjoyed a brief burst of laughter. “I went stomping around the house and throwing temper tantrums. ... When I got to hold her, I fell in love with her. I told my mom, ‘You’re not getting her back. This is my baby.’”

In coming years, as the older sister embarked upon a life of her own, the two drifted apart. Jini said they only reconnected in the last year.

“We spent hours talking and goofing off just like when we were kids,” said Jini, who said everything changed with the news of their father’s cancer. “I found myself leaning on Bekah for support, just like she leaned on me when she was younger. She always had the answers that I should have had, that I should be giving her. She knew more about love and life and friends than I could ever hope to know. ... When I found out about the accident, all I could think of was, ‘I need Bekah to tell me what to do.... She’s the song we dance to, the sun we play in and the conscience we all need when our own fails us.... It’s not possible for her flame to be extinguished by something so small as death.”

Bob Warren, Bekah’s grandfather, spoke of his granddaughter’s desire to seek out and raise up the downtrodden.

“If you needed her, she was there,” he said. “I challenge every one of you, be like Bekah. Don’t judge. Remember her all the time.”

When a pack of brightly dressed friends took the stage, they did so in Bekah’s spirit, with a joyful exuberance and keen sense of humor. Friend Olivia Horton-Gregg, 15, assigned a word to each letter of Bekah’s name, B for best friend, E for enthusiastic and K for kindness.

“A is for annoying,” said Olivia as the audience again burst into laughter. “She was the most annoying and aggravating person I have ever encountered.”

She closed with H for happy.

Fahrner closed with a compliment to Bekah’s reflection in the fashion styles among audience members.

“Death has no hold over her,” he said. “Honestly, can any of you think of Bekah and not smile? Like at her baptism, when apparently she didn’t think I was wet enough. And apparently she convinced her brothers.”

Speaking before the service, Fahrner said he was overjoyed to see the outpouring of love from the community, from the congregation, to school friends, to places like the Grapevine and Avenue A Teen Center.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Fahrner. “It makes somebody like me realize what a good decision it was to make Antrim my home.”