Joe Flacco Supports Legacy Of Towson Student Killed In Ocean City Hit-And-Run
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Baltimore's famous No.5 is lending his support to help a Howard County family still grieving from the loss of their son, following a deadly hit-and-run accident last year.
Christie Ileto explains Ravens' Joe Flacco is teaming up with Dairy Queen to donate to the Matthew Cheswick Memorial Fund.
Cheswick's family gets football star help keeping their son's legacy alive.
Flacco and Dairy Queen are giving $25,000 to the memorial fund in Cheswick's name.
"It's obviously pretty cool to be able to be here and help them out in any way possible," Flacco said.
"The fact that he would do something like this in order to promote drunk driving and recognize my son and what he stood for, words can't express how much that means to me," said Cecilia Roe, victim's mother.
Police say Cheswick, a Towson student, was killed by drunk driver Diogo Facchini last year in Ocean City.
Five thousand dollars has already been raised in his name.
His family says this latest donation is good news, after learning weeks ago that Cheswick's killer could be up for parole.
"That happening a week before this is happening is helping to bring that awareness to drunk driving, and I that that's important, and I almost feel like it was ordained to happen this way," Roe said.
The family says the money donated will be used partly for scholarships and also to bring awareness to the dangers of drunk driving.
"My hope and my goal is that it will enhance awareness for our students about making very good decisions," said Karl Schindler, Glenelg High School principal.
"It's definitely a big problem that we have today with all the drivers out there and with all the things that we got going on," Flacco said."The biggest thing is to just be as safe as you can" and stop what happened to Cheswick from happening to anyone else.
So far, no date has been set for Facchini's parole hearing.
There's an online petition to keep Cheswick's killer behind bars. It's garnered more than 3,300 signatures.
Cheswick's family says Flacco originally planned to help in February, but the Ravens were kind of busy that month.
