By Birgitta Wolfe, Managing Editor
CHESTERFIELD A viewing followed by a funeral Mass for 11-year-old Isabelle Tezsla killed in the Feb. 16 school bus-truck crash will be held Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Church of St. Gregory the Great, 4620 Nottingham Way in Hamilton Square.
Burial will be private.
The Tezsla family has asked that in lieu of flowers memorial donations be made to the Tug McGraw Foundation, P.O. Box 45, Yountville, CA 94599 or through its website at www.tugmcgraw.org.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Mount Laurel Home for Funerals.
Chesterfield Elementary School, where Isabelle was a sixth-grader, will be in full session Friday, but parents can take their children out to attend the viewing and the absence will be considered “excused,” according to Superintendent Ellen McHenry.
The district has also posted guidelines for parents on its website for preparing children for attending the service and telling them what to expect.
An interfaith Service of Hope and Healing will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 45 Crosswicks Street, Bordentown City. St. Mary School requested the service because some of its enrolled students are from Chesterfield.
Isabelle’s triplet sister Natalie was released Feb. 22 from Cooper University Hospital in Camden where her sister Sophie and fifth-grader Jonathan Zdybel, 11, remain in critical condition.
Isabelle was the daughter of New Jersey State Police trooper St. Anthony and Sue Tezsla.
As the Chesterfield community mourns, fundraising efforts on behalf of both the Zdybel and Tezsla families continue. As of Feb. 24 the Friends of the Tezslas Facebook site had collected $17,000 for day-to-day expenses.
The public also is volunteering bands, concerts, raffles, and other services for the effort. The Philly Phanatic has been recruited for a benefit Beef & Beer event for both families at Cedar Gardens in Hamilton on March 18.
Radio station WPST plans a benefit auction of celebrity memorabilia this week for the families. The station also will ask for donations from listeners who don’t bid.

