Raphael Delacruz expects a lunch rush every day at his El Sol de Mexico restaurant in Corvallis.

Even he, however, didn't expect the rush he saw Thursday, when the restaurant at 1845 N.W. Circle Blvd. hosted a fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. for Julia Penn Delacruz, a popular food server at the restaurant who is Raphael's sister. A quarter of the profits from the day's business went to help pay for Julia's medical care.

Delacruz, 35, has been hospitalized at Oregon Health & Science University since shortly after she was the victim of a Nov. 8 car/pedestrian accident. She was crossing Circle Boulevard just east of Kings Boulevard to get to her second job at El Sol de Mexico when she was struck by a car driven by Constance Ash, 82, of Corvallis.

No official action has been taken regarding the accident.

Delacruz also worked as a food server at Elmer's Restaurant on Northwest Ninth Street, and between her two jobs, she had many friends.

Raphael said many of them showed up Thursday - so many that he had to call in all the employees to keep up with all of the business. "The Corvallis community has been wonderful," he said. "We never expected this kind of response. It's very touching."

Julia has come out of the coma that followed the accident and is not yet fully alert. Although she recently was removed from the Intensive Care Unit, she relies on some life support machinery, and her condition took an alarming downturn recently.

According to a Thursday entry in "Julia's News," the Web site at http://patty-ju

lia.blogspot.com that family members set up to inform interested friends of her condition, "Julia has been moved from ICU (back) into a therapy ward. The good news is there was no finding of an infection or internal artery bleeding of that nature. The cause was irritation with the trachea. However, her trachea is now equipped with the inflated balloon to assist with her breathing. It will be a week or so before they decide to deflate the balloon and move forward with a different type of trachea to assist with her speech. A minor setback, compared to what she has already endured."

Raphael said improvements to her condition are measured in the tiniest of increments. She can squeeze the hands of visitors and medical personnel. But does that signal real communication? "It's really hard to say," Raphael said.

Family members established an account at Wells Fargo for those who would like to make contributions toward Delacruz's medical bills. The account number is 9194504784.