Fundraiser for girl’s family today

Marisa O’Neil

Two weeks after his mother died, 1-year-old Tony Alexander Espinoza

still waits hopefully for her to come home.

Costa Mesa resident Giovana Tang, 18, died June 10, when her car struck a utility pole in Santa Ana. Family members have done their

best to help her son understand, but Tony still calls out for his

mother, said April Tang, Giovana’s stepmother.

“He just says, ‘Mama, Mama,’” April Tang said. “I don’t think he

really knows. He still looks for her. You can tell he’s scanning the

crowd, looking for his mom.”

Giovana and Tony had lived with her father and stepmother, Romulo

and April Tang, in their Hall of Fame home since just last year. But

the news of her death so touched her neighbors, they organized a

fundraiser and raffle in her honor today.

Though they can’t help her family with their grief, they hope to

help with funeral expenses and set up a trust for Tony, who will turn

2 in November.

“Everyone puts themselves in the place of losing a child,” said

Mike Brumbaugh, president of the Halecrest/Hall of Fame Homeowners

Assn. “And then for that child to leave behind a child -- man. This

[fundraiser] is one thing I can at least help out on.”

One neighbor, who builds low-rider beach cruisers, donated a

bicycle to raffle off, Brumbaugh said. Then other donations for the

raffle -- like jewelry, makeup and a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse gift

card -- followed.

Neighbors will serve coffee, doughnuts and sell the $5 raffle

tickets from 8:30 to 11 a.m. today at 3101 Loren Lane.

“I can’t even believe it,” April Tang said of the neighborhood’s

support. “If it was not for all these people, we could not make it

through.”

Giovana worked part time at Target on Harbor Boulevard to help

support her son. She was finishing up high school and would have

graduated from Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove this week.

Her family received her posthumous diploma Wednesday night at the

school’s graduation ceremony. All her friends wore green ribbons --

her favorite color -- to remember Giovana.

Her stepmother remembers her as an outgoing, friendly girl who

worked to complete her schoolwork right after she had Tony. She was

planning to go to Orange Coast College.

Now Tony is living with his father, Omar Espinoza, 20, in Garden

Grove.