Southington restaurant holds fundraiser for Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier's family

A Southington restaurant held a fundraiser Friday evening for the family of Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier.

It was a packed house at Smoke and Muddle in Southington for a Friday dinner rush. The customers weren’t just there to eat and drink, but to honor a fallen state trooper.

“It’s just a beautiful, beautiful community and this is just evidence of that,” Laura Judge of Southington said.

A community that came out to support the family of Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier  after he was hit and killed during a traffic stop on I-84 in town last week.

“For somebody that protects and serves us every day, it’s awful and we just wanted to help as much as possible,” Robin Cimino, owner of Smoke and Muddle, said.

She says that help is coming from 15 percent of all sales from customers who dined in along with a raffle which drew in donations from other local businesses.

“We have donations from like every possible business you could possibly think of in the towns of Southington, Cheshire, Wallingford,” Cimino said.

“Anything to help the family,” Al Ricciardone of Southington said.

More than $900 was raised in the first hour of the raffle. Customers saying they know the money is going to a good cause.

“Robin does such a great job here at Smoke and Muddle and she does a lot of community events, so I wasn’t surprised,” Amy Gagnon of Southington said.

For Cimino, the support she sees is a validation of what the Southington community is all about.

“Everybody comes together for everybody, so it’s really overwhelmingly nice to see,” she said.

All of the money will go right to the state police approved GoFundMe page for Pelletier’s wife and two young sons.