4/9/2020 – The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ – https://www.lawrenceville.org/news-detail?pk=1094469&fromId=229325#
When Drew Paglia ’22 and his sister, Heather, realized at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that their favorite local businesses in Freehold, N.J. could suffer as a result of the quarantine and social distancing measures, they thought about how they could help. The siblings created a GoFundMe campaign in order to help small businesses—and health care heroes—by purchasing food and gift cards to deliver food to people impacted by the pandemic.
CentraState Medical Center
“One local hospital, the CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, asked for gift cards that could be passed on to patients being released from the hospital to provide food for them and to enable them to stay home”, stated, Drew Paglia.
Since launching the crowdfunding page, the siblings have managed to raise more than $3,000—and have grown their local fundraiser into a national challenge to others to get involved through the Paglia’s 5help.org website. Their new effort has already raised $16,000 and the siblings hope to garner many more donations in order to reach their $5 Wipe-Out COVID-19 Challenge’s one million dollar goal. Drew and Heather Paglia was even featured on Fox & Friends this week for their efforts and did a live Skype interview with Fox’s Ainsley Earnhart.
“We’re just launching it now…” says Drew Paglia
“We’re just launching it now,” Drew told Fox & Friends. “When we saw how the community came together we were shocked and thrilled and we wanted to move to a national level. We’re challenging people to donate $5 if they can to help out as a way to get involved, we can help small businesses which are the backbone of our country. You should try to get involved during this time as there are so many people in need” stated Drew Paglia.
Check back soon for more stories about how Lawrentians are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic!
For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.