BEACH PARK, Ill. >> A Northern Illinois kindergartener whose father was killed in a military training accident last year has a date to her first father-daughter dance: A soldier with the Illinois Army National Guard.

The National Guard says in a news release that 5-year-old Cayleigh Hinton of Winthrop Harbor is going to tonight’s dance with 1st Sgt. Joseph Bierbrodt of Sheridan. The two will be escorted to Our Lady of Humility School in Beach Park by a veterans’ motorcycle club and members of area police and fire departments.

Army Sgt. Terrence Hinton died in a military truck crash on the Big Island last May. Police said a 20-year-old man was driving a military tractor trailer transport vehicle towing heavy machinery when he lost control near a turn on May 14. The tractor trailer struck a guardrail and overturned into a culvert. Hinton was riding in the front passenger seat at the time and died at a hospital.

National Guard spokesman Mike Chrisman says Bierbrodt has never met Cayleigh, but volunteered after he thought how much such a gesture would mean to his four children.