Caring community turns out for pasta dinners to aid family

December 18, 2018 at 7:39p.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Caring people by the hundreds bought $8 pasta dinners at Flambeau’s Live Tuesday in a fundraiser aimed at helping the family with funeral expenses for five children who died in a fire Dec. 9 at their Parkcliffe Avenue home.

People were lined up at 3:15 p.m. for an event scheduled to run from 4 to 8 p.m. Vehicles were parked for blocks on surrounding streets and in the parking lots of businesses and establishments.

Penny Wells of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past group said Monday that a fund the group has set up to help pay for funeral expenses reached $16,000 over the weekend.

Tuesday’s event, organized by Wells, Youngstown Councilwoman Anita Davis, Derrick McDowell, a Sojourn board member, and the Rev. Lewis Macklin, was expected to raise several thousand more.

Among the small army of people who volunteered their help at the fundraiser was Pearl Neely, who suffered the loss of seven members of her family in a 1993 house fire, including three children, her parents, and a niece and a nephew.

“I understand. That’s why I’m volunteering,” said Neely, who is still in counseling.