GoFundMe tops $10K to help family who lost fifth-grade boy

FALL RIVER — An online fundraiser to help the family of the 11-year-old boy who died of as-yet-unidentified causes Thursday cover funeral expenses raised nearly $10,000 from 293 donors by Saturday afternoon.

Stephanie Santos, who identified herself as a “longtime family friend,” set up the GoFundMe campaign on Friday.

The fundraiser is called Javen’s Jar, named after the fifth-grade student who attended Mary L. Fonseca Elementary School. It has surpassed its $5,000 fundraising goal.

Santos shared memories of the boy in a statement that accompanied the fundraiser, and included photographs of Javen smiling alongside his family.

“In every photo you will see this little boy’s smile light up the room. But the reality is, you never know the amount of pain someone may be holding in their heart,” wrote Santos.

Santos said Javen had a little brother named Jackson, and that both boys are “the love of their mother, Jessica’s life.”

“The heartbreaking reality is, he will never know just how loved he truly was as there was no need to turn around to see that it was Jessica being consoled by the continuing flow of family and friends, as the sound of a mother’s anguished cry over the loss of her baby is a sound that you cannot unhear,” Santos continued.

Javen’s family is one with faith, Santos wrote, and are “broken” over their loss. The anguish caused by Javen’s death means their “smiles may never shine quite as bright as they once did.”

“I am asking that in Javen’s memory we come together and give his life more meaning than his death,” wrote Santos.

Police were called to a Beattie Street apartment building Thursday just before 10 p.m. for a report of a person not breathing.

Residents of the multi-unit building where Javen lived with his family said emergency medical services workers attempted to revive the student.

He was taken to the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Rhode Island Hospital, according to Fall River Superintendent Matthew Malone.

Malone confirmed a Fonseca student died Thursday in a statement released the following day. Crisis counselors were on hand at the grieving school Friday and Saturday afternoons.