Hanover Park student raises funds for library, sibling in the military
Before Frankie Wegner graduated from Spring Wood Middle School in Hanover Park, she wanted to show her appreciation to her teachers, and thought of raising funds for the school's library.
Her mom Stephanie suggested she do it in honor of her brother and three other Spring Wood graduates, all of whom have or are currently serving in the military: Frankie Wegner's brother Philip Quinn, Jonathan Young, Angel Garcia and Nick Spiewak.
The friends all grew up in the same Hanover Park neighborhood near Hialeah Lane and Santa Anita Drive, and graduated together from Spring Wood in 1998. They all went on to Lake Park High School and entered various branches of the armed services after graduation in 2002.
Today, a plaque hangs in the school hallway outside the Spring Wood library in honor of the four graduates.
The school's assistant librarian, Joan Young, is Jonathan's mother. "He was surprised, honored and humbled, too," she said of her son, a Marine who served two tours of duty in Iraq, when he found out he was being recognized in the fundraising effort.
Garcia, who served in the Navy, also was in Iraq and Spiewak, a Marine, is currently there. Quinn, who spent four years in the Coast Guard, worked on a counternarcotics, counterterrorism response team in the Caribbean.
Frankie Wegner raised $498.88 from neighbors, and presented it to the Keeneyville Elementary School District 20 board at the end of May.
She said she purposely didn't round the total to $499 because she wanted to note the 88 cent donation she received from two neighborhood children she baby-sits.
"I thought it was kind of cute it was an odd number because of the kids," Wegner said.
An avid reader, Wegner wanted to add to the library's collection, getting new books or duplicates of the more popular items for the 530 students at Spring Wood.
Librarian Linda Pfeffer said Wegner's gift was a "huge contribution," and would be used to make purchases supporting the types of books Wegner checked out of the library when she was a student there.