Longtime Casa del Rey employee to rebuild family home

Editor’s Note: More than 6,000 homes were lost in the Eaton Fire. Many of the residents set up GoFundMe or other crowdfunding pages to try to manage the immediate added costs while they worked with insurance or FEMA to figure out rebuilding. Many of these pages are still underfunded. If you’d like to donate, go to GoFundMe.com and search “Eaton Fire.”

Sal “Chava” Huizar is part of the Casa del Rey family, having worked for the restaurant for nearly 50 years. So when his family lost their home of 17 years in the Eaton Fire, the Sierra Madre restaurant’s owners set up a GoFundMe page to help.

“They have been ripped of their home, sanctuary and peace. Two people who came from absolutely nothing to this country and built a beautiful home and a beautiful life for their two daughters,” wrote Ed and Donna Rey on the GoFund- Me page. (Ed Rey’s parents opened the original Casa del Rey in 1972 in Temple City; he and his wife opened the Sierra Madre location in 2004.)

Chava and his wife, Alicia, are living in the Pasadena area while they rebuild, their daughter Christina Huizar says. They are in the permit process and “hopeful that in the near future they will have their beautiful home standing once more,” she says. A total of $38,612 was raised from the $50,000 goal, and the page is not seeking new donations.

A majority of the GoFundMe donations were used to furnish their current home and to recover essentials, says Huizar. “They are thankful to everyone who donated,” she says.

• To see the GoFundMe page, visit GoFundMe.com/f/help-chava-andalicia- rebuild-after-eaton-fire