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As Lombard burn victim recovers in Texas, supporters host benefit concert

Autumn Hamilton has shown a resiliency well beyond her 16 years, and it's why a community of her supporters call themselves #AutumnStrong.

The Lombard burn victim is now some 1,100 miles from those friends and loved ones who have decorated her hospital room, wrapped red ribbons around trees in her hometown and encouraged her through a painful and often frustratingly slow recovery.

But that distance may not feel so wide Saturday night, when strangers touched by her ordeal host a fundraising concert in Berwyn to help defray Autumn's substantial medical costs.

Three months ago, the Glenbard East High School sophomore and cheerleader suffered third-degree burns on 40 percent of her body in a fire pit explosion at a house party in Glendale Heights.

After 75 days in the burn unit at Loyola University Medical Center near Maywood, Autumn transferred earlier this month to Shriners Hospitals for Children in Galveston, Texas, a campus that specializes in treatment for pediatric burn survivors. Her rehabilitation there could take another 90 days.

It's not a well-meaning platitude when Margarita Rivera and Annette Bennett, both moms to 16-year-old girls, say they understand her family's heartbreak.

Rivera and Bennett have organized the concert for Autumn and her family through their charity, For the Love of Lee, named after Rivera's 13-year-old son and run out of their Berwyn church.

Rivera and Bennett organized their first concert and other fundraisers in 2014, raising $50,000 for the construction of an accessible bedroom and bathroom for Lee, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative and incurable disorder that eventually causes paralysis.

That project spawned fundraising efforts to cover the out-of-pocket expenses of four other families with kids living with serious and terminal illnesses.

Lee Rivera serves as ambassador at his charity's events, and he will speak at "Autumnfest." If he could give a message to Autumn, he would say this:

"I hope she heals as quick as possible, and we can raise the money for her so she can live an adult life," he said.

Rivera won't attend the concert because she's in Puerto Rico caring for her mother, who has dementia. But before she left for the trip scheduled months ago, Rivera was relentless in drumming up support for "Autumnfest."

"She has gone to nearly every single firehouse from Lombard to Englewood telling about our story, telling about Autumn's story," Bennett said. "And a lot of the unions throughout the fire departments are going to be sending donations."

Bennett and Rivera pledge to hold more fundraisers and provide comfort for Autumn's family in any way they can.

"I'm here 24 hours a day for you," Rivera said. "If you need me, whether it's at the hospital or at your house or you need me to just sit with you for a while because I get it, that's the best thing that I can offer them. And prayers. And getting this fundraiser together to kind of ease a little bit of the weight."

How is Autumn doing in Texas? She's showing her new doctors and nurses why her well-wishers call themselves #AutumnStrong.

"Although she has been in Galveston for a short time, Autumn is already accelerating past her last milestones reached in Chicago," her aunt, Dahlia O'Connor, wrote this week on a fundraising page for her medical bills. "With her mom by her side, Autumn is flexing her world-famous level of strength to the Shriners support team by taking her first steps!"

Burn victim's family grateful for 'overwhelming' community support

Concert to help Glenbard East sophomore who was burned in fire pit explosion

  Margarita Rivera and her 13-year-old son Lee at their Berwyn home. Rivera runs a nonprofit group named after her son to raise funds for families of sick kids. She's helped organize a benefit concert Saturday to defray the medical bills for Autumn Hamilton, a teen injured in a fire pit explosion in Glendale Heights in April. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  The founders of the Berwyn charity, "For the Love of Lee," have organized "Autumnfest." Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com

If you go

What: "Autumn Summerfest" fundraising concert for Autumn Hamilton

When: 5 p.m. Saturday, July 21

Where: St. Leonard Catholic Church, 3318 Clarence Ave., Berwyn

Admission: Free

Details: Two bands, The Millennials and Above and Beyond, will perform, along with a DJ; Plus, food and alcohol for purchase along with split-the-pot raffles

Fundraising goal: $10,000

How to help: Tax-deductible donations can be sent to St. Leonard Church, 3318 S. Clarence Ave., Berwyn, IL 60402, or made at any BMO Harris Bank to For the Love of Lee

Info: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fortheloveoflee2014">Facebook.com/fortheloveoflee2014</a>

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