Residents rally for bashed teen pair

Kim Waters
Ocean Grove residents are rallying around two young victims of a vicious assault.
A fundraising campaign for teenagers Dylan McEwan and Daniel Dryden has gathered hundreds of dollars so far to help the pair pay their medical expenses.
The 18-year-olds were allegedly assaulted during a night out in Geelong in March, with an attacker biting off Mr McEwan’s ear.
Police have charged an 18-year-old male with intentionally causing serious injury.
Tamara Purcell, a friend of the victims, has organised a public fundraising event on Saturday at Barwon Heads Hotel.
She hoped to raise $10,000 for the pair.
“Dylan will have to have his ear prosthetically replaced because they couldn’t reattach it,” Ms Purcell said.
“He might also have permanent hearing loss.”
Ms Purcell said “overwhelming” community support had flooded in during the week.
“The residents here know and love these boys. We’ve had in particular a lot of older people call up and say they can’t make it to the event but wanted to donate money anyway.”
Ms Purcell said Mr McEwan had returned to work part-time last week but Mr Dryden had recently turned down a concrete cutting job because his was still recovering.
“We just hope to God that a job opportunity will come up when Daniel is able to return to work,” she said.
The fundraising event would feature a two-course meal, an auction and a raffle.
Tickets were still available at $30 each, Ms Purcell said.