Lynn family needs funds for drowning victim’s funeral

LYNN – If sales of a custom T-shirt continue at its current pace the family of Salim Fort will have a large chunk of the cost of burying their son covered.To help the family, the owners of X-Treme Silkscreen & Design on Mt. Vernon Street created a custom T-shirt bearing Fort’s picture and a message that he rest in peace.”We brought about 30 of them to the boy’s house. They went right away so we cranked out about 130, intending to sell them for $10 apiece. Those are all gone, too, so now we’re printing 150 more,” X-Treme owner Ron Caliri said Thursday, noting he hopes to raise about $2,500 for the Fort family.Fort was the 15-year-old Lynn Classical High School student who drowned when he attempted to swim across Breeds Pond on Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures soared into the 90s and many youth sought relief in the cool water.”I felt so bad that I had to do something,” Caliri said. “My son is going to swim at the Prep next year. Sometimes he swims out to the Marblehead islands. He has actually saved a couple of his friends.”Salim lived at 11 Nelson St. with his parents, Astrel K. Fort and Cynthia (Vonleh) Fort, and two brothers ? Astrel, a sophomore at Classical High School, and Samuel, a fifth-grader at Shoemaker Elementary School.Although Solimine Landergan and Richardson Funeral Home will waive all costs except for casket and cemetery plot, the Fort family still face $5,000 to $6,000 in expenses, according to David Solimine Sr.The Salim Fort Memorial Fund was established Thursday to help defray the costs. Donations can be sent to 426 Broadway, Lynn, MA, 01904.The wake and funeral have been delayed in order to give relatives living in Haiti and Liberia opportunity to make travel arrangements.Funeral arrangements were still in progress Thursday. A wake was tentatively scheduled for Friday, Aug. 6, from 3-8 p.m., at Solimine, 67 Ocean St. The funeral service was set for Saturday, Aug. 7, at 10 a.m., at the Zion Baptist Church on Adams Street Extension, followed by burial at Pine Grove Cemetery.Friends and relatives are welcome to gather after the funeral at Classical High School.Gene Constantino, Classical High principal, described Fort as friendly, outgoing, scholastic and a promising athlete. “I don’t often get to know a lot of freshmen but Salim was different. He was so personable. It’s such a shame. He was a good kid and people knew he was going to be a great athlete. He would have gotten a scholarship,” he said. “I visited the family and it is a very tough time for them, but they are appreciative of everything the community has done.”Constantino said the T-shirts will be on sale at the high school Friday from 8 a.m. to noon. “The word is already spreading on Facebook,” he said. “All the money will go to the family for funeral expenses.”