LAKE LINDEN — Lake Linden – Hubbell High School will host an Edmund Fitzgerald commemorative event at 6 p.m. Dec. 3, in the high school auditorium. The event is open to the public, with admission by free-will donation.

The event will feature two presenters: Darren Muljo, who is the grandson of Ransom E. Cundy, who was a watchman on the Fitzgerald, and Karl Bohnak, state representative, meteorologist and historian.

Muljo’s presentation will focus on his family’s Copper Country history, his grandfather’s legacy as a World War II Marine veteran serving in the Pacific Theater, before becoming a Great Lakes sailor. A graduate of Lake Linden High School, Cundy joined the United States Marine Corp during WW II and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. He was one of the few fortunate to survive the historic invasion.

Muljo will also talk about his mother Cheryl Rozman’s decades-long fight to the have the Fitzgerald preserved as a gravesite, which led to legal protections, along with the 1995 bell recovery and the 1999 consecration service aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, at the spot at which the Fitzgerald sank.

Bohnak will provide details on the storm that sank the Fitzgerald, offering expert meteorological insight along with details from his discussions with a deckhand on the Arthur M. Anderson, which followed the Fitzgerald through the storm the night it disappeared.

Andy Crouch, Social Studies teacher at Lake Linden Schools, said the event is courtesy of Muljo.

“It’s being put on by Darren,” Crouch said. “Darren’s grandfather, Ranson Cundy, who was a 1941 graduate of Lake Linden High School, was one of the 29 people who lost their lives on the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Crouch said Muljo has been giving the presentation at various places to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

“Darren’s an old childhood friend of mine. He went to Lake Linden School until his senior year,” Crouch said. “He just reached out to me to see if we’d be interested in doing something in the community, and obviously, it’s going to be a good thing.”

The event is open to the public. Admission is a free-will donation.

Crouch said the money raised from the event will be donated to the Knights of Columbus and American Legion’s toys for Christmas program.

“That goes back to when Darren and I were children and Ernie’s Service, in Hubbell, and all those things that he did, we were part of that as kids,” Crouch said. “So, any money we raise from this is going to get some Christmas gifts for kids.”

Crouch said any non-perishable food donations will go the food shelf located in the old Lake Linden elementary school.