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The Lori Fund has raised $1.325 million in five years to help the families of fallen soldiers. Concert planned for September.
SIERRA WILLIAMS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Lori Fund, a local nonprofit out of The Hammock, is hosting its next fundraiser in September to support military families. The event will be a benefit concert held at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 20 at the Daytona State College Amphitheater in Palm Coast. The headliner performance will be Cooper Alan, an upcoming country singer on tour, with an opening performance by local singer Ashley Estevez. Founder Frank Petruno said he is hoping the concert will net around $200,000 for the charities. If it does, The Lori Fund will have raised $1.5 million for military families in just five years. “The charities that we provide money to have a huge impact on the lives of our veterans and the families of the fallen and for the children,” Petruno said. The Lori Fund was founded after Petruno’s previous wife, Lori, died of a heart attack on April 11, 2019. The September concert will be the fund’s sixth annual major fundraising event. Inspired by Lori’s kindness and values, Petruno and Lori’s family founded The Lori Fund to raise money for nonprofits that support the families of fallen and wounded military servicemen and women. The Lori Fund has donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, the Travis Mills Foundation, Homes For Wounded Warriors, Brave-Aid, Gratitude America and more. “We as a family took this tragedy and turned this into something good,” Petruno said. In order to maximize the amount of funding given to these charities, The Lori Fund runs with no overhead. No one gets a salary at The Lori Fund, Petruno said, and he pays any expenses out of his own
Frank Petruno (left) and his wife Marilee Petruno with Travis Mills, founder of the Travis Mills Foundation. Courtesy photo
pocket. “No one takes a penny,” he said. Petruno said it is equally important to him that the charities that receive the money also have a low expense ratio. It was through The Lori Fund’s events that Petruno met his next wife, Marilee Petruno, who originally was a Lori Fund volunteer. The two married in 2023 and Marilee Petruno has since helped her husband organize the fundrais-
ing events, becoming the volunteer coordinator. Marilee Petruno said she got involved with The Lori Fund as a volunteer. As the mother of a service member herself, she said it is an amazing feeling to help and meet the families their nonprofit supports. The whole purpose of The Lori Fund, she said, is to give back. “This is why we’re doing this, and it’s for a wonderful, wonderful
cause,” she said. It is a cause many in The Hammock have supported and helped out. Frank Petruno said The Hammock community has supported him and The Lori Fund “since day one.” These people, he said, are good people. “I could break into tears to tell you the generosity, the support, the love that this community has bestowed and gotten behind The Lori Fund,” he said.