FAMILY OF TINA VITAL HOLD A CAR WASH FUNDRAISER
On Saturday morning, a week after a horrific multi-car accident that resulted in two deaths and nearly a dozen others injured, the family of victims Tina Vital and her 4-year-old granddaughter Adalina Lilah Perez came together to hold a car wash fundraiser.
Hundreds of Woodland community members attended the car wash in conjunction with a bake sale and taco plate service in the parking lot of Pete’s Restaurant And Brewhouse, located at 164 Main St.
“The amount of support that has reached out is unbelievable. It’s hard to come up with words,” said Armando Preciado, brother of Tina Vital. “We have a line of cars all the way out to Lincoln Street on the other side of the parking lot. The community support is amazing, and we are very grateful and appreciative.”
Preciado mentioned the idea of holding a car wash came up between him and his other brothers. However, the turnout and attendance of the fundraiser caught Precidao off guard.
“We did not think this many people would be coming out,” Preciado said. “When the community comes together like this, it lightens the load. The community support is amazing. It’s great how people will come to your aid in a time of loss.
“When you are alone by yourself, that’s when you grieve. When things ramp up, and people need you, you have to put your emotions aside, kick it into overdrive and run off the fumes. It’s tiring, but you find yourself saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I could do that,’ so you push forward in times like this.”
Vital, 43 and a Woodland native, was described by family members earlier in the week as the “glue of the family,” a “gogetter who was a great mother, always thinking about everyone else,” and someone who was “goal-orientated and loved nature and life.”
“I just want people to know that she was a very strong, loving woman,” longtime partner Mike Delgado said. “She’d do anything for her family, and all she wanted was peace and for people to get along and love each other.”
According to Delgado, Vital completed her commercial Class
A license in early March and recently began working for the trucking company Roy E Lay Trucking.
News broke early Wednesday morning that along with Vital, who died on the scene, her 4-year-old granddaughter Adalina Lilah Perez, one of four others in one of the cars involved, died in the hospital from injuries suffered in the collision.
The other two in the car included Vital’s 24-yearold son and the 18-year-old daughter, who remain in the hospital.
Six people were in the second car, and the suspect, a 13-year-old boy, was in the third car. A total of 11 were injured in the crash.
The accident happened on Saturday afternoon after a Woodland Police Department officer spotted a vehicle downtown that was being driven erratically. According to the WPD’s statement, the officer attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver would not comply.
The officer pursued the car to the intersection of College and Court Streets, where it collided with two other vehicles and caused two cars to catch on fire at about 4:27 p.m.
On Wednesday, the 13-year-old suspected driver appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, including two murder counts.
The family has also set up a fundraiser for Vital. Anyone who would like to donate can do so at https:// gofund.me/354178f6.
“I would like people to remember her as a good person,” Precidao said. “She was a loving, caring, good person who stepped in when people stepped out. She had a boyfriend, but she was a single mother. She took charge and care of her kids, playing the mother and father.”
They have also set up a fundraiser for Adalina Lilah Perez. If you would like to donate, you can do so at https://gofund. me/31363c77.