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Dozens turn out to support fund-raiser for Asian tsunami victims

Eric Reinagel
The Meadville Tribune
March 11, 2005

Dozens of people filled the Academy Theatre on Thurs-day night for a different kind of show.

An “evening out for a good cause” was how Bill Williams of Meadville described the auction for the André Francis tsu-nami relief project that he attended with his wife, Suzie.

Suzie was plenty happy to take home a Pansy Blossoms Tiffany-designed clock donated by Penelec that her husband won for under $45 its retail value.

But getting a great deal was hardly the reason for the night, as the community continued to rally behind 9-year-old Francis’ effort to provide aid to tsunami-ravaged northeastern Sri Lanka.

This particular part of the project was spurred by cable company Armstrong contacting the family, who emigrated from the tiny island off the southeastern coast of India once known as Ceylon, after reading a story in The Meadville Tribune.

“What a wonderful way to support a young boy with such big ambitions,” said Joan Kocan, Armstrong’s marketing coordinator, about why the Meadville-based company got involved.

She said almost all of the 80-some items for the auction were donated, including courtside Cleveland Cavaliers tickets, autographed pictures from some of golf’s greats like Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, and a Las Vegas vacation donated by the Tribune and Travel Experience.

Nearly $7,000 was raised. “It’s really kind of a neat project André’s come up with,” said Jason Palmer of New Richmond. Palmer and his long-time girlfriend, Trisha Baker, made the trek to the auction to bid on a Campbell Pottery lamp, but were impressed by everything available. “We’re kind of surprised about how much was donated and the quality of the things that were donated,” he said. Unfortunately for the two, they were outbid on the lamp by a phone caller watching the live broadcast on Armstrong’s channel 23.

Having such a great community outpouring has certainly impressed the West End Elementary School fifth-grader, who started the project in early January and has since collected 3,495 individual containers of liquid nutritional supplements. “It’s grown a lot bigger,” André said. “It’s turned out very good.” “My dream is to continue, not just for this short period,” he added, receiving a look of surprise from his father.

Dr. Gerard Francis said if the project continues it might include sending money to Sri Lanka because of the high cost associated with shipping large amounts of liquid nutritional supplements. Much of the money raised at Thursday’s three-hour auction will go toward that cost. Dr. Francis earlier expressed that collecting the supplements has had its benefits.

“I don’t want people here to think that this is any way a wasted effort and that sending money would have been better. In fact, there were many touching letters/notes from children here to the children over there and the community is coming together and becoming more cohesive through these efforts, which doesn’t usually happen when someone writes a check out to an organization,” he noted, acknowledging that, of course, monetary donations to organizations like Red Cross have made a difference.