NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WAVE) – Vendors returned to downtown New Albany Sunday morning to pack up early after Harvest Homecoming cancelled its final day following a fatal shooting outside the festival Saturday night.
Some vendors with food left to sell are now using their businesses to raise money for the families of the victims.
Sunday afternoon, Island Noodles held a pop-up event outside of Jack’s in New Albany, with all of the proceeds going to the family of 18-year-old Bryce Gerlach.
Gerlach, a senior at Corydon Central High School, was killed in the shooting. A 22-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman were injured.
“We woke up this morning kind of prepared to go but also understanding what happened last night,” said Lindsay Johnson. “We have the people, we have the food, we have the ability to do it. So when you have the means to help people that’s kind of what we’re about.”
Vendors who were at the festival when the shooting happened say they’re still in shock.
Ginny Weigleb and Marie Diehl operate the non-profit thrift shop the Mustard Seed, which benefits organizations who support survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
They were packing up for the night when the shooting started.
“We heard a couple pops and then a couple more pops and we knew pretty quickly that it was gunfire,” Weigleb said.
As parents, they say learning it was a local highschooler who had been senselessly killed in the shooting hit close to home.
“I can’t imagine,” Diehl said. “I can’t fathom that. That mother or father sent their child to Harvest thinking they were going to come home later on that night, and they didn’t.”
The New Albany business Rookies Cookies and Cakes announced they will be selling leftover cookies from the festival on Tuesday, with a portion of the proceeds also going to victims’ families. They will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at their location at 310 Pearl Street.
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