Even after her death Thursday from injuries she suffered in a car crash in Kona, Rosenberg continued helping children by donating a heart valve to an ailing Hawai'i youngster.

"That's what she would have wanted ... to keep helping people," said her brother, Alan Rosenberg, who attends the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut.

Sarah never regained consciousness after Monday's crash on Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway, about a half-mile north of the Kona airport entrance. She was on her way to her job as a swimming instructor at a Kohala hotel.

Police said a southbound GMC flatbed truck owned by Suisan Co. Ltd. crossed the center line, sideswiped a 2004 Peterbilt tractor-trailer, struck Rosenberg's 1993 Toyota sedan and then hit a 2000 Chevrolet passenger van.

Her brother described Sarah as a "social butterfly."

"She was really full of life, happy, very, very hyper. She was like that ever since she was a little kid," he said. "She knew everybody."

Sarah's father, Philip Rosenberg, a photographer, was returning from a fishing trip Monday when he heard about the collision, and by the time he reached the hospital, there was a crowd of more than 50 friends and family outside.

By the end of the day, more than 100 people waited with the family, many of them sitting in the hallways of the hospital.

Tuesday night, more than 100 people stood in the rain in the hospital parking lot for a candlelight vigil organized by one of Sarah's 4H leaders.

The teenager was born and raised in Holualoa. She was an athlete who participated in water polo, swimming, cross-county and track, and had been selected for a National Honor Society scholarship.

Her family received Sarah's report card in the mail the day she died, learning she had earned a perfect 4.0 grade average, Alan Rosenberg said.

In an essay she had written for the National Honor Society scholarship, Sarah wrote: "I am fortunate to have received a good head on my shoulders, strong moral character, a great group of friends and an unbelievable supportive family.

"I am the one to whom much was given. Much may be expected of me, and I may be obliged to give back. But I don't see giving as an obligation or an expectation. Giving back is a part of my nature."

Her family is planning a celebration of her life at 4 p.m. Jan. 9 at the Kealakehe High School football field. Alan Rosenberg said the family chose to hold a celebration because "she wouldn't have wanted people moping around. She would have wanted a party."

Sarah also leaves her mother, Naomi Shiraishi, a speech therapist for the state Department of Education.