SHERIDAN, Mich. — In the days leading up to the fundraiser on Thursday August 17, Jenny Fike told her staff to be prepared to stay late. Their fundraiser, supporting the families of the tragic hit-and-run last week, was expected to last all day.
“It’s been hard. We have a couple of customers who are related, and came in the night after it happened and sat down and talked to us,” Fike said. “[The staff] asked, 'What we could do?' And they kind of said, ‘Nothing.’ And, we decided to do something though, just to help them out.”
On Thursday, dozens of people dined at the Sheridan Diner on Main Street, eating from a special menu that honored the boys who were involved in the accident.
“I asked the parents of each of the kids what their favorite food was and that’s what we did for our specials,” Fike said. “So, Jameson was a fried chicken sandwich and pretzel sticks, Lukus was just plain old cheese pizza, and Zieke was Honey BBQ boneless wings, fries and ranch.”
Fike said they’re donating 50 percent of the money they make on Thursday to the families to help them with whatever they need, including medical bills.
“My base goal is to be able to give $1,000 to each family,” she said. “I’m hoping to well exceed that.”
Fike believes she will. When a local family lost their little boy a few years ago during a Halloween hayride accident, residents rallied around them.
“Our community really came around the family,” she said. “So, we want to reach out and do that to Greenville because we understand. We understand how it is to lose somebody so young.”
Fike said the fundraiser is scheduled to end around 8 p.m. However, they’re prepared to stay late, and they’ll take donations throughout the week.
“We’re going to stay open as long as people are coming or if we run out of food,” Fike said. “In that situation we can’t really do much, but we’ll keep going until we’re completely out.”
