A fundraiser Sunday will support the family of a Bradford man who was killed in a collision last month.
Javier Quiroz Hernandez, 32, died July 13 after he was struck by two vehicles on Holland Street while on his way home from a bike meet-up in Vaughan.
On Sunday, the Javier’s Bike Wash and Moto Photo Booth fundraiser will take place from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Bradford Canadian Tire parking lot at 430 Holland St. W.
People are encouraged to come out to get their motorcycles washed for $5 and have professional photos taken of them on their bikes for $15, with proceeds going to Quiroz Hernandez’s family.
Quiroz Hernandez, who lived above the Hacienda Santa Teresa restaurant in Bradford with his mother, Marta Hernandez, and his father, Francisco Quiroz, worked for a construction company owned by the restaurant’s owner, Juan Velazquez Sr.
After reading about Quiroz Hernandez’s death and seeing the outpouring of support him, Garrison Hooper decided to help the family, and that’s how the idea for the fundraiser came about.
“I thought we should do something,” he said. “I started calling around and as soon as I started calling people, everyone was on board and wanted to help. It’s been easy to get to where we are with it because of everyone’s support. They have the GoFundMe, too, but I wanted to help bring more relief to the family.”
Having not known Quiroz Hernandez personally, Hooper reached out to Velazquez Sr. and the family with the idea.
“Juan was very accepting of the idea and has been very helpful with it, and it’s just a matter of me making sure I’m being respectful to the friends and family,” Hooper said. “I didn’t know Javier, but I used to have the exact same motorcycle as him and I’d seen him at a gas station a couple of weeks before he passed, and I talked to him about it then. Then, when I saw what had happened, I felt something had to be done. It’s a motorcycle community and this is what we all dread.”
With everyone he’s reached out to getting behind the idea, Hooper says it’s all come together smoothly and he’s happy the community will be able to continue to support a family in need.
“I’ve got photographers donating their time, a landscape crew coming to move crates to build a wall (for the photo backdrop), and a water truck that’s coming and donating the water,” he said. “It’s just been a matter of making phone calls and it’s come together well. Everyone is excited about it.”
The GoFundMe for the family of Quiroz Hernandez can be found here.
