UPDATE

Lolo community helping father of drowning victim raise money

Posted: Jul 19, 2011 6:11 AM by Irina Cates- KPAX News

LOLO- The town of Lolo is helping Connor Flowers' father pay for his son's funeral and other expenses by setting up funds and holding fundraisers this week.

People can donate money at all Bitterroot Valley Bank locations or they can donate at any U.S. Bank in the United States. You can ask to donate to "Connor Flowers" at any of those locations. Collection cans have also been set up in Lolo Harvest Foods.

There will also be a fundraiser at Lolo School on Tuesday at 2 p.m at the lower gym. Then on Wednesday, there will be a bake sale at the Lolo Harvest Foods from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. There will also be a car wash in the Harvest Foods parking lot from noon until 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Flowers, 14, died Friday evening while swimming in a pond at Riverside Park and crews recovered his body the next morning.

The Missoula County Sheriff's Office reports three young boys were trying to swim across the pond, got about half way there, and then decided to turn around and come back.

Two of the boys made it back, but the third one started to have problems and that's when he went under water and never came back up.

"The other two boys said he was yelling and kind of splashing around, but they thought he was kind of messing around," Missoula County Sheriff's Department Detective Jason Johnson said.