Monty Tech JROTC students raise funds for Hero Foundation

FITCHBURG — Monty Tech Marine Corps JROTC students recently presented a check for $7,079 to the Westminster residents Elaine and Kevin Jones, the parents of a graduate who was killed by enemy fire in Iraq in 2007.

The students raised the money through their annual JROTC March-A-Thon, which was a 10-mile march through the city of Fitchburg. The money will go to the Ryan Patrick Jones Heart of a Hero Foundation, Inc., which was established by the Jones family in honor of their son after his death. An honor student and student leader at Monty Tech, First Lt. Jones received a bachelor of science degree in engineering with honors from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2005.

The Jones were also presented a shaker-style display cabinet made by the students in the cabinetmaking program at Monty Tech. Jase DiNardo of Gardner and Jesse Goodnow of Princeton, both seniors, made the cabinet in honor of First Lt. Jones. Roland and Paul Bessette of J&R Glass Service Inc. in Fitchburg donated the glass for the cabinet, and the wood was donated anonymously. The cabinet, which is engraved in memory of First Lt. Jones, will be displayed at the U.S. Postal Service’s Northwest Boston Processing and Distribution Center in Waltham, where Kevin Jones is employed, in memory of all veterans of service in Iraq and Afghanistan.