Help the Chapa Family Rebuild After Fire

Help the Chapa Family Rebuild After Losing Everything in Fire

This fundraiser is for the Chapa family, who lost their home and personal belongings in the Sinton, Texas fires on Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

Thankfully, Larry and Grace Chapa were able to get out fast enough and no one in the family was harmed. However, half of their house burned and the other half is not recoverable—making it necessary to demolish and rebuild.

Retired now, they bought their home forty years ago. Larry Chapa is a military veteran who served 23 years in the US Army Reserves as a Staff Sergeant and one year in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Grace Chapa worked in retail for 19 years and 6 years as a home health aide. Their three adult children were raised there.

In 2012, their younger daughter, Kristene, survived a double-shooting that killed her girlfriend, Mollie Olgin. Kristene’s brain injury left her with paralysis on her left side, vision and hearing loss, debilitating migraines, and severe post-traumatic stress disorder. Grace played the central role in caring for Kristene (18 at the time) throughout the first decade of her rehabilitation. “My parents’ house is my home too,” Kristene says. Before the fire, she returned for weekends 1-2 times a month with her fiancé.

Larry Sr., who suffers from Glaucoma, lost most of his sight in the last season. During the fire, his son, Larry Jr., did all he could. There were fires everywhere, and when the firemen finally arrived, they could not save the Chapa home.

Instead of enjoying their retirement in peace, focused on their grandchildren, Grace and Larry Chapa must start over. Contributions to this fund will help them in the process of building a new handicap accessible home.

Larry and Grace Chapa are hardworking and resilient but they need our support.