Fox Cities community rallies with fundraisers for victims of wrongway I41 crash
May 22, 2026
Following a wrong-way crash on I-41 sent 5 people to the hospital, many in the Fox Cities community is organizing fundraisers to help victims recover.Watch the full broadcast story here: Fox Cities community rallies with fundrai
sers for victims of wrong-way I-41 crashElias Tirado works at his family's business, Tirado's Taqueria, and when his former classmates suffered life-altering injuries in the May 8 crash, he wanted to pitch in."I saw the GoFundMes and I thought we should contribute. I have this big resource around me, and so I talked to my sister and my dad and we got it going," Tirado said.On May 22, Tirado Taqueria donated 20% of all their orders to two injured in the May 8 crash."We've had a lot of people come in, lots of new faces," Tirado said.Authorities have not released the names of those involved in the crash, but family and family friends have confirmed at least two names: Melanie Cendajas and Marcus Garcia.Appleton neighbor Nate Andree plays cornhole with Marcus Garcia's family every week. In the wake of mounting medical bills, Andree is organizing a cornhole tournament to raise money for the family."We're off and running, we've raised $800 already," Andree said."When the tournament is all done, we'll just write them a big check and give it to them. Anything we can do to help them, because it was such a terrible thing that happened to their son," Andree said.The tournament is July 18 at 'The Shop' 2740 Packerland Drive in Green bay, starting at 10 a.m.NBC26 spoke with Melanie Cendajas' sister, who said the support of the community has been overwhelming."The support of our community has truly been nothing short of overwhelming and beyond appreciated from our friends and family," she said.She said her sister is suffering life-altering injuries and is heading toward a long road of recovery involving intensive therapy for traumatic brain injuries."Our family is under a lot of stress right now as our sisters recovery is extensive. This was no minor accident," she said.You can find a link to their family's gofundme page here. A link to support Marcus Garcia can be found here. And a gofundme organized by Oscar Garcia can be found here.
...read more
read less