Wildwoods Schools Raise Funds for Fire Victims

WILDWOOD CREST – March 31, educators from throughout the Wildwoods worked together to raise money for a local family devastated by a house fire earlier that week.
Teachers at Crest Memorial School in Wildwood Crest, Wildwood’s Glenwood Avenue and Wildwood High schools, Margaret Mace School and Wildwood Catholic and Cape Trinity Catholic schools in North Wildwood collected more than $5,200 in cash and gift cards.
The fundraiser was in the form of a “dress-down day,” in which teachers pay $5 for the privilege of wearing jeans to school for the day.  Wildwood Catholic and Cape Trinity — schools which require students to wear uniforms — extended the dress-down option to their students.
Money collected was donated to a family which has two children enrolled at Crest Memorial School.  A March 27 fire destroyed the students’ home, which was a multi-family home also occupied by other residents.  A campaign organized by John Lynch’s Lunch With Lynch non-profit organization has collected funds to be dispersed to the other residents.  Lynch, who lives just a few hundred yards away from where the fire occurred, was at the scene of the fire shortly after it broke out and was one of the people who helped catch the children as they had to jump from a second-floor balcony to escape the smoke and flames.
“Raising money to help local families is easy,” explained Jeannine Yecco, president of the Wildwood Crest Education Association.  “The people who live and work in the Wildwoods are, without a doubt, the most caring a person could find anywhere.  When it’s time to step-up, the Wildwoods prove time and time again that they care for their own.”
Yecco said that she simply sent emails to the presidents of the other two public school districts, the Wildwood and North Wildwood education associations, and received immediate affirmative replies.   Shortly after, she learned that the island’s Catholic schools were eager to pitch in, too.  
When she went to visit the local schools with her school’s superintendent, David Del Conte Jr., to pick up the proceeds on March 31, “I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people in other districts to help out this family,” she said.  “Obviously, many people gave much more than the $5 donation that was requested.”
Del Conte, who is working with Lynch’s organization, presented the proceeds from the fundraiser at the end of the school day on March 31.  The students’ father was at first speechless, then voiced his appreciation for all the Wildwoods’ community has done for his family.