Student Raises More Than $900 for Injured Officer

The money keeps rolling in for Kevin Hughes.

Hughes, a Wayne Valley High School student, has raised more than $900 to help injured police Officer Bob Franco.

“It went way better than I expected,” Hughes said.

Hughes and a group of his friends sold about 700 candy canes to Wayne Valley students and faculty in just two days recently. The sweet seasonal treats sold so fast, Hughes had to keep buying more. Hughes’ father is volunteer firefighter and ex-chief of Company No. 5, which is located in the Packanack Lake section of town.

Franco, a 15-year veteran with the police department, suffered a severe spinal cord injury when a tree fell on the vehicle he was in during Superstorm Sandy in late October. It took an hour to extract him from the vehicle. He was kept immobilized in the days following the accident but steadily recovered from the accident.

A neck brace kept his head immobile until just recently. Franco previously said that he has every intention of making a complete recovery and go out on patrol once again.

Hughes has also received hundreds of dollars in donations from friends and family throughout the country. He received a check in the mail for $50 on Friday.

Hughes wrote Franco’s initials on his sneakers as a way of inspiring himself to keep going and to collect as much money as he could for Franco.

“I wore them to school everyday,” Hughes said. “People would ask me what the letters stood for and I would tell them. It was a great way of letting others know what I was doing and who I was doing it for.”

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