It is graduation party season, and Mia and her sisters decided to attend a party in an area they formally resided in before moving to Pitman 6 years ago. The party was in Deerfield Twp and it was heavily advertised on social media. Like many parties that are advertised on social media, too many people attend and it doesn't stay a happy and positive event like the party throwers hoped for. Shortly before midnight on Friday June 26th a fight broke out at the event because of a car crash that happened outside of the Elm Street residence. When chaos arose many people started running to leave the event and during that moment, while Mia and her sisters were running someone drove down the street and fired multiple gunshots. Sadly, Mia was shot in the leg which resulted in her have not only a gunshot wound but a broken femur. Mia was taken to Cooper Hospital from the event. To make it abundantly clear, Mia was trying to leave and she did nothing to warrant this event. She is a 17 year old who recently graduated, who wanted to attend a party and have fun! Little did she know that gun violence would take place while she was there. On Saturday morning, Mia was taken into surgery where they removed the bullet safely, and they also installed rods to help with the break. As of yesterday afternoon, she thought that she was on her road to recover and would be starting PT, and then in the middle of the night the swelling started and they needed to do an early morning surgery to relieve the pressure with a tube and will need to utilize a wound vac for now, until she further recovers. Because of this latest situation, this will result in Mia being in the hospital longer. Mia's emergency along with hospital stay is resulting in her Mom and family with visits to the hospital, foods purchases, parking charges, and lost wages from work for Mia and her Mom. If you would like to donate a gift cards or drop off a donation to me locally in Pitman, please reach out to me via email reginamjames@yahoo.com.

To know Mia is to love her. She is kind, sweet, and caring. She is a recent graduate of Pitman High School. No donation amount is too small. Every single donation will be appreciated and put into good use during this extremely difficult time. In closing, if you have a teen have conversations about these mass invite gatherings and the dangers that can take place. We are so incredibly fortunate that the outcome is that Mia is here and can recover.