Hi friends,

I’ve started a GoFundMe to humbly ask for your help.

As you may know Tommy and I lost our mom so unexpectedly after her heart procedure on October 19, 2023. Since then we’ve been trying our best to go through the legal process to take care of things. Navigating grief during this time is extremely difficult but one of the last conversations I had with our mom in the hospital was about taking over the restaurant.

Wasu Schouten immigrated to the US with Los Angeles, CA as her first destination. After living a few years in LA to help her sister run their Thai restaurant, our mom made her big move to Daytona Beach, FL. There, in South Daytona, is where she opened up the first Thai restaurant in Volusia County in May of 1991. Since the pandemic, the restaurant has been closed for dine-in and was almost sold in the summer of 2023. We have been chipping away at getting it back into shape and operating. This would be her 33rd year open and serving the central Florida community her delicious food and sharing our rich Thai culture.

Unfortunately, Songkran isn’t a protected asset and we could be forced to sell it. I’ve weighed all my options but keeping Songkran is so important to me because being in the restaurant brings me comfort. Tommy and I have never experienced a major loss like this, our mom is the only family we had, and being devastated feels like an understatement.

If I can raise enough money to partially cover legal fees and our mom's debts. I’ll be able to at least start from scratch. I envision a beautiful future for Songkran. A place in South Daytona to share art, food, and culture. Creating a safe space and community has always been important to our family and we want to honor our mom's legacy for as long as we can.

Your donations will be put towards helping our family with: legal fees, the restaurant's property tax, covering debts of Su's that are out of our control and keeping us afloat at this time. I continue to pop up at local markets and also freelance, so any form of support is greatly appreciated.

You can follow us on Instagram to stay updated: https://www.instagram.com/songkran.1991/

Much love,

Alex and Tommy