Prospect High football players donate to Lendino family

Prospect and Hersey high schools may be rivals when it comes to on-feld competition, but off the field they can be part of the same team.

Prospect's football team showed that recently when it donated $2,000 to the family of a Hersey student killed last year by a driver who police say was going 107 mph.

Alyssa Lendino, 16, of Mount Prospect was just a few weeks from beginning her junior year at Hersey in Arlington Heights, where she was a three-sport athlete in track, bowling and swimming. The fatal crash occurred July 21, 2018, at Milwaukee Avenue and Hintz Road in Wheeling. Her parents, Michelle and Tony, and 12-year-old sister, Amanda, suffered injuries.

Renee Martin, president of the Prospect Parent Football Council, said the team gave $2,000 to the Lendino family and another $500 to the American Heart Association, as decided by the seniors. The heart association gift was in memory of a former Prospect football player's father who died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 2017.

Martin said the money came from the Knights' fundraising efforts, including sales of retail discount cards. The parent football council also helps the players raise funds from selected donors.