Tamale and pozole sale benefits family of father, son who drowned at Goat Rock Beach

Cesar Chavez Language Academy parents will sell tamales and pozole Friday to raise money for the family of 6-year-old Axel Sanchez Medina, who drowned along with his father Sunday at Goat Rock Beach.

Parents will be selling the Mexican traditional holiday fare between 9:30 and 11 a.m. in the parking lot of Comstock Middle School (2750 W. Steele Lane, Santa Rosa) which shares a campus with the language academy. Tamales filled with peppers and cheese will be available for $2, and a 32-ounce to-go container of pozole for $10.

Earlier this week school employees launched an online fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses, but parents who knew the first-grader and his father, Omar Sanchez Hernandez, a school volunteer, wanted to do more for the family, Principal Rebekah Rocha said. The idea to sell food came from parents and the school's family engagement specialist, she said.

“They all are taking it really hard,” Rocha said of the drownings.

Axel and his 8-year-old brother, William, also a Cesar Chavez Language Academy student, were running along the beach Sunday when a rip current swept them away. Their father, 31, is believed to have jumped into the rough surf to save them, but William was the only one who made it out safely.

Rocha said the school also set up a youth savings account for the surviving brother. Donations can be made at Redwood Credit Union in the name of William Sanchez Medina, account number 6674sanc.

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 707-521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.