ANTRIM COUNTY — High school seniors in Ellsworth have put a fundraiser together set for May 6, benefiting members of the Charlevoix golf team, who were involved in a head-on accident in the team van.
The accident happened on April 27 on M-115 in Benzie County. Police say a stolen SUV out of Antrim County crossed the center line and drove into the team’s van.
Everyone in the van was injured and taken to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City.
The driver of the SUV died at the scene. High school seniors at a neighboring school wanted to step up to help their fellow students.
The fundraiser will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on May 6 at Ellsworth Sports Park.
Ellsworth High School seniors Brooklyn Swenson and Julia Sundstrom said they felt impacted by what happened to the Charlevoix Golf Team.
“We’re all one big family, basically. It kind of hurt knowing that some of these people were close to you,” Swenson said. “We have our superintendent… his son was involved. So, it kind of hit home knowing these kids were really injured.”
“We were really touched because we know a lot of the players personally, and we just want to do something to help,” Sundstrom said.
William Sponable says this was important because he competed against the Charlevoix Golf Team.
“I played golf for our golf team, and I know how much that it must suck to have something like this happen,” Sponable said. “I just want to be able to give back to those guys. I mean, obviously, it’s costly for the medical. Their families need support. We want to help them out as much as possible through this recovery process.”
Swenson and Sundstrom came together and asked the staff if they could do something. They came up with the idea of a cookout fundraiser at their high school’s softball and baseball games.
“We knew it would probably be the easiest to make in such a short amount of time that we had, from what we know, the accident to trying to get money to the golf team to help with their medical bills and the families.”
The fundraiser will include all food that is donated and they are asking people who attend to make a donation for the golf team.
“During these kinds of times, I would like people to know just how closely knit we all are. And whenever something like this happens, everyone just comes together. Acts like a big family, and we take care of one another.”
William has this message to all the players who were affected.
“We hope that you guys recover quickly and …. You can walk away from this knowing that the community has got your back.”