How could anyone do such a vicious thing to a child?
That’s what Kent resident Bonnie Bingham wanted to know as she drove to work about a month ago. She heard a radio news story about Angelo Mendoza Jr., a 4-year-old boy in Bakersfield, Calif., whose father attacked him April 28, actually eating the boy’s eyes by mutilating them with his teeth.
“I almost had to pull over and throw up,” said Bingham, 29, as she recalled the story during a July 1 interview. “I had never heard of anything like that. I was in shock.”
At first, Bingham, 29, didn’t want to know anything more about such a gruesome story. But as a single mother of children ages 2 and 1, Bingham couldn’t let go of the terrible incident. She decided to do something to help the boy.
Bingham has organized a car wash and bake sale fund-raiser for Mendoza from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 18 at Eastridge Baptist Church, 12520 S.E. 240th St. Nearly 40 friends, family, coworkers and Eastridge church youth groups have agreed to help Bingham at the fundraiser.
“I could not even imagine if one of my kids had gone through that,” Bingham said. “I felt a fire in my heart for that little boy. I wanted to do everything in my power to help.
“It strikes a nerve in me what happened to him. I don’t know the family or who he is. But if it happened to one of my children, I feel I’d be giving up hope if there was not someone there to help my children. It happened to a little child who is completely innocent. It frustrates me when adults take advantage of little children.”
Mendoza survived the attack, although he has lost his left eye and has limited vision in his right eye, according to a post on Bakersfield.com. The state of California has picked up some of the medical costs for surgery and counseling for the child, but not all of them.
He is living in a foster home.
The mother of the boy already had only supervised visitation rights with her son because of drug problems, Bingham said, of the mother’s status before the attack.
Bingham contacted radio disc jockey Monti Carlo of Movin’ 92.5 in an effort to find contacts to help the boy. Carlo sent Bingham a link to a Web site run by the Forever Changed Christian motorcycle gang in Bakersfield, a group that has helped raise money for Mendoza.
In addition, a phone call connected Bingham with Tamara Rosas, the boy’s aunt. Bingham has remained in contact with Rosas for updates.
A Baby Angel Fund for the boy has been set up at all locations of Wells Fargo bank. The money raised by Bingham will go to that fund.
“I felt we should’ve seen a national outcry,” Bingham said of the horrific incident. “I have a lot of compassion for children who can’t experience a healthy relationship with both parents.”
Bingham, who works in the quality engineering group at Boeing, has never run a fundraiser before. She was uncertain how people would react to helping a boy they did not know.
“I went in skeptical,” she said. “I thought people would say it’s bad, but bad things happen every day. But the majority have responded with wanting to know how they can help.”
That type of response has helped Bingham deal with such a terrible story.
“It’s built back my hope in people that they are willing to help,” she said. “People are not just capable of great evil, but capable of great compassion and sacrifice.”
That such an awful act could be done by a father to a child still bewilders Bingham.
“That people are capable of doing this is a big disappointment to me,” she said. “I don’t understand it. It doesn’t even process in my brain. I wanted someone to tell me it wasn’t real.”
Bingham discovered to do something to help someone else can be quite rewarding.
“To be involved in this is not overwhelming – it’s a good thing,” said Bingham, of organizing the fundraiser between work and raising her two children. “A lot of people feel they are too busy to do something good, but if they did it anyway, they would find it refreshing. It’s something that gives you a purpose because you’re helping.”
Bingham has learned through working on the fund-raiser for Mendoza to not let little problems in life bother her.
“It puts in perspective that a lot of things are not that big of a deal,” she said. “There are so many bigger things worthy of my time.”
For more information on Mendoza or to donate money, go to www.imforeverchanged.com, www.babyangel.moonfruit.com or visit a Wells Fargo bank and ask about the Baby Angel fund.
More than $24,000 has been raised so far, according to the Baby Angel Web site.
To help Bingham with her fundraiser, e-mail her at Cashcam1@gmail.com.
What: Car wash, bake sale
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 18
Where: Eastridge Baptist Church, 12520 S.E. 240th St.
Cost: Donations accepted
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