The family of Vicente Mundo is calling his memorial service a “celebration” of his life.

Saturday’s 10 a.m. memorial will be held at Curie Metropolitan High School in Chicago, which Mundo attended. His sister, Julieta LaMalfa, said the family is still working through logistics but is aiming to have it this weekend to give friends from Champaign and family from Mexico a chance to attend the memorial. 

“We’ve been very lucky that the high school has offered to host it,” LaMalfa said.  “All the teachers have been passing around pictures of him. He was really involved with the school, so a lot of the teachers still remember him fondly.”

An account was created on GoFundMe on Tuesday, asking for $5,000 to host a funeral procession. By press time, more than $7,000 was raised. LaMalfa said the family will be donating the rest of the funds to LostNMissing Inc, an organization that helps families find missing persons. 

LaMalfa said her family has received an outpouring of support from her brother’s tae kwon do studio, where she said he was like a teacher, as well as La Liga Latinoamericana, where he played soccer. 

“Anything above and beyond what’s needed we are going to donate to LostNMissing just because all of the support we got,” said LaMalfa. “What we went through was so painful that if we can help anyone else out in any way, I think it’s very important to do so.”

LaMalfa also said she received a phone call from Chancellor Phyllis Wise, who said Mundo’s teachers have been sharing good memories of their student.

“The fact that they’re sharing stories about him, I mean, I’m hoping no one ever has to go through this, but the first thing I would advise them to do is to share stories, because it’s so beautiful reliving some of those experiences through peoples’ memories,” LaMalfa said. 

Charlotte can be reached at [email protected].