Canfield woman connects with Regis and Kelly

CANFIELD — A city woman used her brief national spotlight to honor a fallen friend.

Megan Zarlenga sent a photograph of her two children earlier this month to the Holiday Snapshots Travel Trivia contest on the Regis & Kelly show which airs daily on WFMJ TV 21.

She received a call from the show Thursday morning to participate in the contest. Zarlenga, who also appeared on the show six years ago as a Martha Stewart look-alike, correctly answered the trivia question about show guest David Cook, the American Idol winner, to win a trip for two to Hawaii.

For the next part of the contest, Zarlenga was asked to choose a number between 1 and 150 so an audience member could win a prize. She chose 37.

“I said it was in honor of Chief Warrant Officer Donald Clark who died in a helicopter crash last weekend,” Zarlenga said.

Clark, a Boardman native serving in Iraq, was 37.

“I knew him in high school, but I hadn’t seen him since high school,” Zarlenga said.

Both were in the band at Boardman High School. Clark graduated in 1989 and Zarlenga in 1990.

Upon learning of her former classmate’s death, Zarlenga began searching through her high school memorabilia, looking for a photograph of Clark to send to his parents.

“I found his senior picture,” she said. “He wrote something sweet on the back. It brought tears to my eyes. I hadn’t seen him in 20 years.”

Zarlenga said she feels bad she lost touch with Clark and wanted to pay tribute to him.

“I had the chance so I took it,” she said.