This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published June 26, 2014 and can be found here.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Juan & Maria Contreras. Their family has been serving up the tastiest (and friendliest) Spanish-American food at the Public Market for almost as long as I myself have been a Rochesterian. Their homemade empanadas
have earned their place alongside the Garbage Plate and the Zwiegle's white hot. Over 1,000 empanadas have been known to fly out of this little food stand on any given day at the market, but no matter how busy they are, Juan always has time to greet each customer with a warm, "How are YOU my friend?"
Now our friends need our help. Their daughter, Carolina (33) has been locked in a battle against a rare and deadly form of cancer known as Clear Cell Sarcoma. This Sunday at the Rochester Public Market the Contreras family will host a garage sale to help raise money for Carolina's fight for life...
Chemo and radiation therapies are ineffective, and people affected by this form of cancer have a prognosis described as "uniformly fatal", usually surviving less than 2 years. But Carolina is a fighter. She and her husband Craig have done extensive research over the past 6 years and have decided to try and duplicate the one known case of a successful systemic treatment of clear cell sarcoma. She will receive 3 weeks of non-conventional cancer treatments that are not covered by insurance. Juan tells me she will have to fly to Germany for this treatment.
Carolina has two young daughters who would like to see their mom kick cancer's butt. So let's help our friends and come out to this garage sale in force.
Carolina's Contreras DeHond's
Fight for Life Garage Sale
WHEN: THIS Sunday June 29, 8am to 4pm
WHERE: Rochester Public Market
(in front of Juan & Maria's Empanada Stop)
Join the event and share it on Facebook
You Can Make a Donation
Cash or checks made out to "Rochester Christian Reformed Church (RCRC)" can be brought to the garage sale or sent to RCRC 2750 Atlantic Ave., Penfield NY 14526. Be sure to write in the memo line, "Carolina's Fight For Life" AND if you wish to make your check tax deductible please include a note with your contact info.
You can also donate new and gently used items for the garage sale. These items may be dropped off ahead of time at the Bible Baptist Temple, 706 South Avenue
(by appointment only). Please call Benjamin Contreras on 585-899-0071.
Or if you'd like to volunteer, see this note below from their Facebook page...
Dear Family & Friends, Thank you so much for the time you have given us in pulling together the fund raisers for Carolina's Fight for Life. We are reaching out to you again to see if you can help us out at all on Sunday 29th June? We are looking for volunteers to help us at the Public Market Garage sale throughout the day and basically man the operation. Please don't feel you have to be there all day, the goal is to enlist enough volunteers so we can come up with a schedule for the day. Ready for the perk...empanada breaks throughout the whole day kindly put on by Juan & Maria's Empanada Stop. The garage sale is from 8am to 4pm, there will also be a set up shift in the morning and a clean down shift at the end of the day. If you are able to help and have a particular time in the day you prefer please contact Tina at [email protected] Thanks again for your time,
Tina, Kim, Mandy & Kathy
