Villagers and area residents who want to help a local restaurant manager who lost everything in an Easter fire can do so on Saturday.
That’s because all three Cody’s Original Roadhouse locations in The Villages will serve as drop-off points for items to benefit Mary Recchia, general manager of the Brownwood location. The single mother of six who is out of work because of the COVID-19 crisis lost her single-wide mobile home and all of her family’s belongings in the blaze. No one was injured in the Wildwood mobile home, which was fully involved in flames when firefighters from The Villages and Sumter County arrived on scene shortly after 1:15 p.m. this past Sunday.
Those wanting to help out can drop off items from noon to 3 p.m. at any of the three Cody’s locations in The Villages. Those eateries are located in Brownwood at 3731 Meggison Rd.; in Lake Sumter Landing at 1041 Lake Shore Dr.; and 8761 SE Hwy. 42 in the Mulberry Grove area of the community.
Owner/operator Allen Musikantow said Recchia, a longtime Cody’s employee, needs items like backpacks, lunch boxes and school supplies for her children. Musikantow also promised that social distancing will be practiced at the drop-off locations.
Brian Mann, a bartender who works with Recchia at the Brownwood eatery, set up a GoFundMe account to help her and her children. The page, which can be accessed by clicking HERE, had reached $27,020 of a $30,000 goal by late Friday afternoon. So far, 366 people have donated to the effort and it had been shared 852 times.
Mann also posted a plea on his Facebook page for beds or cots, a window air conditioning unit and clothing items for the entire Recchia family. The items and sizes needed are:
- Men’s size 36-32 pants and large shirts, size 112 shoes;
- Men’s size 36-31 pants and extra-large shirts, size 13 shoes;
- Men’s size 32-32 pants and medium shirts, size 10 shoes;
- Boy’s size 10 pants and large youth shirts, size 7 shoes;
- Boy’s size 8 pants and med youth shirts, size 5 shoes;
- Girl’s size 10 pants and large youth shirts, size 7 shoes; and
- Women’s size 8 to 10 pants/shorts and medium tops.