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April 11, 2008

Spaghetti dinner nets $10,000 for 18-year-old hit by car

WESTERLY — A bank, a civic group and private donors last night raised more than $10,000 for Sylvia Bogusz, the 18-year-old injured when she was struck by a car on Route 1 and thrown more than 100 feet.

The money came from a spaghetti dinner at the Calabrese Club on Pleasant Street. The fundraiser, sponsored by the Westerly Lions Club and NewportFed Bank, attracted more than 530 diners in just over two hours.

“We had lines out the door,” said Frankie R. Algiere, a NewportFed Bank assistant vice president and branch manager. Bogusz and her family received a standing ovation, she said.

Hit by a driver accused of speeding and driving drunk last June, Bogusz faces months of physical therapy. The South Kingstown resident walks with a cane and needs help to climb the front steps to her house.

After the accident, Bogusz went into shock and then a coma. Despite severe blood loss, broken bones and brain damage, Bogusz started talking after four months. Last month, she went home.

To help her pay her medical and physical therapy bills, philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein has also promised to match up to $10,000 in gifts given to a separate fund for the teenager.

Participants in the Feinstein challenge should send checks payable to the Sylvia Bogusz Recovery Fund. The checks, postmarked no later than April 30, should be sent to Alan Shawn Feinstein at 37 Alhambra Circle, Cranston, RI 02905.

-- Journal staff writer Paul Davis

Posted by Brandie Jefferson  at 12:14 PM | Permalink

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