MACKINAW, Ill. – The community in and around Mackinaw is remembering the nine-year-old boy who died a week ago in the area of the city’s “Mack-a-Fest.”
There’s a GoFundMe page for the family of Adrian Zehr, there’s a pancake breakfast Saturday where the proceeds will go to Zehr’s family for funeral expenses, and then there are simpler expressions of love – like from the Eureka College basketball team, who hosted a camp Zehr attended.
“I asked them if we would want to dedicate the day, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we want to dedicate (Thursday’s) camp day to Adrian,” said Chip Wilde, coach, to 25 News. “We want to play like a champion, and we want to play like Adrian,’” said Wilde.
Wilde says Zehr would show up to camp every year with a Deer Creek Mackinaw jersey, with his name and number hand-written on the back.
A memorial also has gone up near the site of the accident.
As for a pancake breakfast Saturday, it was supposed to be held last Saturday, but it and other Mack-a-Fest activities were canceled in Zehr’s memory.
“The Zehr family has always been just an absolute pillar of the community,” Bryce Sleeter, family friend and volunteer firefighter, said to 25 News. “We’d like to return that to them and show them that we’re here in that time of need.”
The breakfast is at the Mackinaw Fire Station from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
