Restaurants turn #PurpleforOliver to raise money for the Hitchcock family

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (WBAY) - Three restaurants in the Sheboygan Falls area raised money all day on Sunday for the family of Oliver Hitchcock.

Oliver Hitchcock is the 8-year-old boy who authorities say was killed by his mother in the beginning of April.

In honor of Oliver’s favorite color, it was a sea of purple throughout Shuffs in Sheboygan, Frankie’s Pub & Grill in Sheboygan, as well as DeO’s Pizzeria & Pub in Plymouth.

“All purple, purple shirts, purple beads, purple balloons,” said Eric Brushert, bartender & social media manager at Frankie’s Pub & Grill.

All three restaurants spent the day collecting donations, and donating 10% of all their sales to support Oliver’s father and brother.

“When a tragedy event happens you really hope that your community comes together and this being as tragic as it is, the only thing that I feel a lot of people can do sometimes is donate time and money because there’s nothing you can do to take away the heartache and the heartbreak that the family’s going through,” said Micki Gnatzig, general manager at DeO’s Pizzeria & Pub.

The day long “Oliver Hitchcock Benefit” all started as an idea from one of Frankie’s employees, Eric Brushert.

“We’re all owned by the same family, the Frank family. And it’s just one thing we’ve always done to give back to the community. It’s been a passion of mine and a drive since previous careers and everything, just to give back to the community in such a tragic thing that we had to play our part and help the family,” said Brushert.

Employees tell us many customers came in specifically for the benefit, all decked out in purple.

“We came out specifically for the benefit to have lunch here because we knew that some of the proceeds were going to go to the family,” said Mark Fredricks, a customer at Shuffs.

Each restaurant had donation buckets out, and sold purple frosted “In Loving Memory of Oliver” cookies, made by a local Sheboygan Bakery, CocoaMo Confections, who is donating 100% of those proceeds to Oliver’s family as well.

“I think the story touched everybody in this community here. There have been all kinds of efforts to reach out to the family, and this was just one of them. And I thought that this was a nice way to show our love and concern for the family,” said Fredricks.

To help in extra ways, DeO’s Pizzeria & Pub had purple drink specials, and one customer at Shuff’s brought a gift for Oliver’s father.

“Even this little bit that we’re doing, we are all so happy to do it and just anything that we can do on the side to help the family is an amazing thing I think,” said Gnatzig.

While, two bartenders at Frankie’s Pub & Grill stepped up in a big way.

“Myself and the other bartender are donating all of our hourly wage today, so we’re just trying to play our part.” said Brushert.

All three restaurants expect to share the final total raised on Monday, we will keep you updated.

If you’d like to donate, Oliver’s family started a GoFundMe.

Copyright 2022 WBAY. All rights reserved.