MOD Pizza fundraiser for suicide prevention draws large crowds Wednesday
Photo by Jacob de Waard
MOD Pizza in Downtown Naperville held a fundraiser Wednesday for Suicide Prevention Services of America on behalf of Naperville North student Isaac Pedley who died of suicide in April 2017.
He was considered a regular at MOD Pizza, so after his death the restaurant put a picture of Pedley on the Downtown store’s “Wall of Fame.” Eric Kowalski, the general manager at the Naperville restaurant, was one of the driving forces behind the fundraiser in which 100 percent of sales were donated to SPS.
The idea came about after Kowalski and some coworkers attended Isaac’s funeral services and spoke with those close to Isaac.
“They brought up MOD [at the service] and his time here so we had to do something,” Kowalski said. “So I sent off a couple of emails to my bosses and they ran with it. It was fun. I’d like to take a lot of credit [for] it, but I didn’t do this by myself.”
The fundraiser was put together with help from not only the District Manager but also the Regional Director of Operations and the Vice President of Operations for all of MOD Pizza. They decided all proceeds from the event would go to Suicide Prevention Services of America, a Batavia, IL based non-profit. Some members of Isaac Pedley’s family attended the event, including Isaac’s mother and brother Asher.
“This has just been an awesome turn out. This has been Isaac’s favorite place since we moved here. I think that he almost ate here more than he ate at home with us,” Asher Pedley said.
MOD Pizza was flooded with people for the fundraiser. The long line was worth it for many students like NNHS junior Ingrid Lowery.
“I’m just so happy that there were so many people who came because I hope that it makes a difference in our community, and I’m glad that so many people care,” Lowery said.
After 8 p.m. when the fundraiser ended, the flow of people coming into MOD Pizza began to slow down. AJ Rodarte, an employee at MOD Pizza, reflected on the fundraiser.
“I had a sense [that this] is not for MOD, this is for Isaac. So I’m going to wear a smile like he would and greet everybody with an open warm smile and a very upbeat attitude,” Rodarte said. “When I saw the long line and how it was endless, it made me even more happy because I figured that Isaac would’ve loved to see this.”
As of publishing this story, MOD Pizza has not released how much money they will be donating to Suicide Prevention Services of America.
Jacob de Waard is a senior at Naperville North High School and is the Multimedia Producer for The North Star and The NOW. Jacob was born in New Jersey...
