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Rolling Meadows schools rally to help 8-year-old burn victim

Students from two Rolling Meadows grade schools and their families will come together Tuesday night to help an 8-year-old classmate recovering from severe burns suffered in a household accident.

Adorian Fentry, a second-grader at Kimball Hill Elementary School, has been in the hospital since March 12, when he sat on a cocktail table in his home’s living room, knocking over a candle and setting his clothes on fire.

He suffered second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of his body, including his face, said his mother, Tiffany Fentry.

Adorian was at Loyola’s burn unit until last week, when he was moved to La Rabida Children’s Hospital in Chicago for rehabilitation, she said.

Since the accident, Fentry said, parents and teachers from Kimball Hill and Central Road Elementary, where Adorian attended first grade, have been helping. She said she’s received gas cards for the commutes to the hospital and food gift cards to help feed herself and her three other children, as well as letters and visits to the hospital.

Now Adorian’s classmates will be giving back.

Students will be seating families and serving the food themselves from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Gus’ Diner, 2160 Plum Grove Road in Rolling Meadows. Proceeds will go to help the Fentry family.

An account also has been set up in Adorian Fentry’s name at Chase bank for donations.

“I feel so loved and so grateful,” Tiffany said. “When I told Adorian about all the support he started to cry. He didn’t know how many people cared, and it was very emotional.”

The Fentry family has lived in Rolling Meadows only or two years, so Tiffany said she was so thankful for the outpouring of support.

“It’s not easy seeing this and going through it,” she said. “This was one of the last things in my mind that could happen.” This isn’t the first time the Fentry family has gone through tough times — Tiffany’s husband died in a 2008 car accident.

“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “My kids were just getting back on track and being happy and able to talk about their emotions, and then this happened.”

Fentry said she moved from Chicago to Rolling Meadows after her husband’s death because of the school system and the chance to give her children a safer, better life.

Dawn McNaney is among several parents Kimball Hill parents who helped plan the event. Her daughter and Adorian are classmates.

“He was one of those kids that would come up and give you a hug right when you walked in. He was just a really cute kid,” McNaney said. “You look at one child and you look at your child and you think, ‘It could be mine.’”

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