The Ashburn Ice House and its sister ice house, the Medstar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, have launched an official GoFundMe page to raise monies to help the surviving families of Flight 5342.
At least 15 people connected with the two ice houses were on the doomed flight that collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River four days ago. The tragedy killed 67 people in total.
“We were devastated to learn that members of our skating community were on the American Airlines flight from Wichita that crashed on Wednesday night,” said Ashburn Ice House General Manager Rob Lorenzen. “Our hearts go out to everyone involved. This is just such a terrible tragedy.”
The GoFundMe has been set up by the management company that operates the two ice houses in order to benefit family members who lost loved ones in the crash.
The fundraiser has a goal of raising $250,000 and — as of this writing — has raised nearly $14,000. You can find the GoFundMe page at this link.
Victims from Flight 5342 include many skaters and their family members from Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
Among them were Peter and Donna Livingston and their daughters Everly and Alydia — all of Ashburn; Justyna Beyer and her daughter, Brielle, of Aldie; and Inna Volyanskaya, a coach at the Ashburn Ice House and a former skater with “Disney on Ice.”
The full scope of the tragedy and the victims is still developing, but also killed in the crash were skater Corey Haynos and his parents, Roger and Stephanie Haynos, all of Fairfax; skater Eddie Zhou and his parents; and skater Franco Aparicio and his father, Lucian Aparicio — also all reportedly Northern Virginia residents.