{"id":23079,"date":"2026-03-04T15:29:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T22:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=23079"},"modified":"2026-03-19T15:30:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:30:57","slug":"sandra-woman-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/sandra-woman-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandra,  Woman Strong!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>BY HERBERT ROMERO<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>OUR VOICE COUNTS<\/strong><br \/>\nHi, my name is Sandra Castillo, and I am 65 years old and fighting for my life. I am the owner of Lago Azul restaurant in Hailey, and because of breast cancer, I am unable to work anymore. Consequently, I had to shut down my restaurant to focus on my medical care. I am suffering financially, emotionally, and physically because of thisdiagnosis and the thought of having to even close my business.<br \/>\n<strong>Who I am<\/strong><br \/>\nI am a grandmother of eight, and, as a mother, I understand what children can go through. When I see children in need, I offer my restaurant with no hesitation as a safe environment to eat, feel comfortable, and communicate their issues. As a grandmother, I understand the struggles people go through, and through my motherly instinct, I try to ease the burden. So, in events like the Hispanic Heritage, I have sponsored them with free food whenever I am financially stable. I also try my best to offer free food for those in need because I believe that no one should leave my restaurant with an empty stomach. I supported this community and gave opportunities to those in need even before I opened Lago Azul.<br \/>\n<strong>Why I need help<\/strong><br \/>\nUnfortunately, I was diagnosed in early February with type 3 breast cancer and have surgery scheduled for the second week of March. I am unsure of the need for chemo or radiation. We are focusing on the surgery and recovery. This sudden news has left me financially unprepared. Luckily, I have Medicare that covers a large portion of it, but I still do not have enough funds to cover the rest on my own.<br \/>\n<strong>How can you help?<\/strong><br \/>\nI am asking you to please support my GoFundMe to lessen the financial burden for me, so I can continue to enjoy my grandchildren and family. Every donation counts -\u2014 $5, $50, and even $500 will bring me one step closer to my goal. If you are unable to help, please share this, so others may have an opportunity to join and know.<br \/>\nMy Fundraising Goal: $10,000<br \/>\nThis will help cover: medical bills that aren\u2019t covered by Medicare; follow-up care and medications, travel, emergency expenses.<br \/>\n<strong>From me to you:<\/strong><br \/>\nOwning Lago Azul and being a part of this community has allowed me to know and share experiences with many wonderful people who have given me their support for these last 23 years. I am grateful to have this opportunity to serve every single customer as if they were my family. I understand that giving back to my community is not required, but I do it to help others. Whoever is reading this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have seen the support and loyalty that each customer has towards me, and I greatly appreciate it as a loving mother of my culture.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY HERBERT ROMERO OUR VOICE COUNTS Hi, my name is Sandra Castillo, and I am 65 years old and fighting for my life. I am the owner of Lago Azul restaurant in Hailey, and because of breast cancer, I am unable to work anymore. Consequently, I had to shut down my restaurant to focus on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":23080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nuestra-voz-cuenta","category-sponsored"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23081,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23079\/revisions\/23081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}