Manuel “Manny” Mendez was known for walking the neighborhood in a construction vest — the kind of bright layer meant to make sure drivers could see him.
To relatives, it became part of how people recognized him: A man moving through the community, stopping to help, fix or pray with whoever needed him.
Now family and friends are asking the public to gather Saturday evening for a candlelight vigil in Mendez’s memory, one week after the 84-year-old volunteer was found dead after a brush fire near Rigsby Avenue…