Police: Thousands in gifts for Mount Dora grads stolen

Thousands of dollars worth of gifts meant for students graduating from Mount Dora High School were stolen early Thursday during a burglary on campus, police said Friday.

Smart TVs, laptops, drones and GoPros were burglarized from a locked room at the school’s McLin Fitness Center and there was damage to the property, police said.

The gifts were meant to be doled out at Project Graduation, an all-night event designed to provide seniors a safe and substancefree environment to celebrate graduation May 19.

Many students’ parents spent close to a year raising money for the special night.

“As a parent, it’s frustrating, because, you know, I put a lot of work into it and to have somebody kind of take that away from our kids, that’s kind of frustrating,” said Darcey Durant, the mother of a Mount Dora High School student who will be graduating.

She said she and other parents started fundraising in August, collecting nearly $10,000 to buy items for prizes at the graduation bash.

“We have done multiple fundraisers, worked multiple parking lots at the Mount Dora festivals and at the Christmas event we had sent out over 300 sponsor letters trying to get donations in,” Durant said.

The “big-ticket” items stolen totaled thousands in value, she said.

Parents and volunteers have already assembled to recoup their losses, launching a GoFundMe page Thursday with the goal of raising $5,000. As of Friday morning, they had raised $765.

In a Facebook post, Addie Owens of RE/MAX Touchstone in Sorrento pleaded for others to join her in donating money to the cause.

“As a business owner, I’m committed to replacing a few of those items,” she said. “But I can’t do it by myself. I’d love for us to come together and replace those items, or as much as possible.”

Lake district spokeswoman Sherri Owens said 10 doors need to be replaced on the campus.