Friends of accident victim to hold fundraiser

Deepa Bharath

There are very few people who have seen Monique Donovan without her

trademark smile.

The 23-year-old waitress, who has worked at the Bandera restaurant

in Corona del Mar for five years, is ever popular with customers, her

best friend and roommate Brooke Gouin said.

“She gets more requests for tables than anyone else,” she said.

But no one got to see Donovan’s radiant smile this week after she

was seriously injured in a four-vehicle collision early Friday

morning in Victorville as she was driving with friends to Mammoth

Mountain to snowboard for the first time.

Her friend, 35-year-old Andrew Rios, died on the scene. Rios was

driving the Ford Explorer they were in. Donovan was still in the

intensive care unit at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center on Thursday.

Her colleagues at Bandera are her family, Gouin said.

“We’re all devastated and very concerned,” she said. “Monique has

been on her own since she was 18 and doesn’t even have health

insurance.”

So Donovan’s friends are going to help her pay the bills by

holding a car wash and bake sale at the restaurant’s parking lot on

Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It’s the least we can do for her,” Gouin said.

It’s “very weird” not having Donovan around the house, said Adina

Verdult, another roommate.

“We all work together, go out together,” she said. “We even took

dance lessons together.”

Donovan was enrolled as a business major at Orange Coast College,

said Erica Rives, bartender at Bandera.

“Everybody who comes to our restaurant knows her and loves her,”

she said. “She’s the happiest person I’ve ever met. She’s always in a

good mood, and she is a kind soul who would do anything for anybody.”

The fundraiser has brought the entire restaurant together, from

management to servers and bartenders, Rives said.

“We’re all trying to stay positive,” she said. “We’re such a

close-knit family, and we take care of each other. This is a tough

time for all of us.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.