EDWARDSVILLE – The death in the line of duty of St. Louis County Officer Blake Snyder hit Ryan O’Day, Matt Korte and Megan Boyer all hard.
O’Day is owner of Wang Gang and Korte is an employee, but studying to be a police officer. Boyer is married to a Glen Carbon Police officer. O’Day is always kind to first responders at his business and has many friends in law enforcement.
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The trio felt a need to have a fundraiser to benefit Snyder’s widow, Elizabeth, and son, Malachi, so the Commun-ALL Food Fantastic Feast Fundraiser was set. The fundraiser will begin at 5:30 tonight at Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville. There are still tickets available and proceeds go only to the Snyder family, which is something the three all love. The event is scheduled to run from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
A total of 20 restaurants are scheduled to participate and those include Wang Gang Asian, 1818 Chophouse, Cleveland Heath, Fire and Smoke of Troy, Ravenelli’s of Collinsville, Bella Milano, Goshen Coffee Co., Teaspoons, Catrina’s and many more.
There will be music by local musical acts Twilight and Abbey Road Warriors for no cost on the two Wildey floors.
O’Day said with a young child involved it makes him extremely sad.
“It is so tragic that Malachi will never get to personally know his father,” O’Day said.
Thinking of both Malachi and Elizabeth in the tragedy were the motivators for O’Day to get involved.
O’Day said every time a business was contacted to do the fundraiser before they could even get the whole plea to participate out they said yes, that is how passionate everyone was to the cause.
Goddard School’s Barbara Burroughs completely overwhelmed O’Day with her donation to Malachi, a full scholarship to Goddard School as long as he goes through those age periods. O’Day said that donation involves several thousand dollars, which is incredible.
Korte said restaurants are not bringing out full meals but will dish out sample sizes so everyone can get a taste of their restaurant. Korte emphasized every dollar raised will go directly to the Snyder family.
Korte said it has been a joy to work with O’Day and Boyer. He said, although he didn’t know Officer Snyder personally, he has heard nothing but “phenomenal things” about him.
“This falls close to home because I hope to be doing something in law enforcement in the future,” he said. “It hits home for Megan because her husband is a police officer in Glen Carbon and also with Ryan for the people he knows.”
O’Day hopes to continue this event next year and again benefit law enforcement or first responders in some way. He wants to include the restaurants from throughout the region so people can get a true taste of the Metro East. He also praised the group of women who have volunteered to work tonight at the Wildey.
“Every major city does an event like this for law enforcement and first responders,” O’Day added. “This is a nice event to put on and hopefully we will make a lot of money for the family through the ticket sales, raffle tickets, shirts, jackets and we have a box for people to donate cash,” he said.
Tickets are $60 per person and are available through the Wildey website at http://www.wildeytheatre.com/
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