WAUKESHA, Wis. – The owner of a longtime restaurant in Waukesha, Wisconsin, will be donating 100% of his sales on Thursday to a fund that has been set up for victims of the deadly parade last week.
John Meehan, who owns John’s Drive-In, said he will donate the money that the restaurant makes on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST to the United for Waukesha Community Fund, the Waukesha Freeman reported.
Six people were killed and more than 60 people were injured when an SUV drove into the Waukesha Christmas Parade on Nov. 21.
Meehan, whose restaurant has been selling hot dogs and root beer floats in Waukesha since 1937, said he got the idea from an employee, according to the Freeman. The employee asked if she should give up her Christmas bonus, which Meehan normally doles out at Christmas, to the fund, the newspaper reported.
“It’s the least I can do for the community,” Meehan told the Freeman. “The community has been great to me. All the support I have had for the 30 years I’ve been here has been so awesome and I thought I needed to do something to give back.”
>> Waukesha Christmas parade: What we know about the 6 victims
Investigators said that Brooks drove his Ford Escape down East Main Street, intentionally running into the Christmas parade and killing Virginia Sorenson, 79; Tamara Durand, 52; LeAnna Owen, 71; Jane Kulich, 52; and Wilhelm Hospel, 81. A sixth victim, Jackson Sparks, 8, also died. He was marching in the parade with his youth baseball team.
Since Sunday, the United for Waukesha Community Fund received approximately $1.8 million, with 7,000 individual donors, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. There have been donors from all 50 states and 12 countries.
Darrell Brooks Jr., 39, is accused of plowing his sport utility vehicle into the holiday parade.
