The Live Like Cole Foundation is transforming tragedy into an inspiring legacy, raising money for local scholarships, children’s cancer research and a community fishing pier in memory of 16-year old Cole Coppola, who was tragically killed last year when he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on the Alma Lee Loy Bridge.
As part of that effort, the foundation held a charity golf tournament and reception fundraiser last Saturday at the Bent Pine Golf & Country Club. Although thunderstorms forced the cancellation of the golf tournament, the evening cocktail reception and silent auction proceeded as planned and Bent Pine agreed to give players the option of playing at another date.
More than 150 guests attended the reception, with many friends of the Coppola family wearing pink and orange – Cole’s favorite colors. As attendees perused roughly 100 auction items which filled the reception area, family friends Chris Sexton and Pamela Bennett sold engraved planks which will be used along the planned 100-foot-long Cole Coppola Memorial Pier. Scheduled to be constructed on the west side of Riverside Park, the project is a partnership with the City of Vero Beach and the Florida Inland Navigation District.
Guests also wore wrist bands engraved with #LiveLikeCole, the hashtag Cole’s friends Alanna Liebman and Grace Carlon came up with the day after the accident.
“We were all just so sad and we wanted to do something so we came up with a social media campaign that everyone could join in on,” Carlon explained. “Cole was a very sweet person who lived life in the moment and looked for the best in life so we came up with idea that we should all live like Cole because you never know what will happen.”
That night they made a huge #LiveLikeCole banner which they brought to the Coppola home.
“Cole died on Saturday and Sunday night they brought it over and rolled it out, and all the kids from St. Helen’s had signed it,” said Cole’s father Dr. Nick Coppola. “The whole family was really down and we saw it and it kind of gave us a reason to live and kicked off the movement of #LiveLikeCole.”
The mission took off with Cole’s sister Melanie serving as the foundation’s CEO. The family decided that funds raised would go toward scholarships for local students, St. Jude’s and other hospitals for children’s cancer research, and community outreach projects beginning with the pier.
“We all decided that I would run the foundation because we think Cole would want that. I spent the most time with him and we shared so many memories,” said 18-year old Melanie Coppola, so inseparable from her brother that they were called “the twins” despite their one-year difference in age.
“All this would have blown Cole’s mind and it blows mine to think that the city and the community reached out to find a place for the pier for Cole,” said Dr. Coppola, who sees the pier as a permanent legacy for Cole. “Whenever the world loses a child, it loses the huge potential of what they could become. Getting back even a portion of Cole’s lost potential is what Live Like Cole is about.”
