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Arturo Martinez-Sanchez, center, sits next to Richard Steele, right, and talks to a fundraiser attendee. Steele organized a fundraiser Saturday afternoon during a boxing event at the Richard Steele Gym and Boxing Club, 2475 W. Cheyenne Ave. in North Las Vegas.
By Jackie Valley (contact) 
Saturday, May 26, 2012 | 6:16 p.m.
TO DONATE
The Martinez family continues to accept monetary donations to help Arturo and his surviving sons. Checks should be made out to “Construction Industry Workers Charitable Foundation,” and a memo line should say, “For the benefit of Arturo Martinez.”
Those checks or cash donations can be mailed to:
Cash donations also will be accepted at:
For Arturo “Art” Martinez, a Saturday afternoon sitting ringside served as a small return to normalcy. He watched the amateur boxers duke it out while predicting the winners to family and friends seated nearby.
Despite the action-packed rounds, however, many attendees’ eyes wandered to the ring-level seats where a different kind of fighter sat. That’s where Art, who was severely beaten in a mid-April attack that left his wife and daughter dead, watched the rounds with his two young sons.
The boxing event was a fundraiser to benefit Art and his sons, organized by former boxing referee Richard Steele, a longtime friend of the family.
“Art is an electrician,” Steele said. “He did a lot of the work in my gym.”
Before Art pursued his dream and opened his own gym, he spent a lot of time at the Richard Steele Gym and Boxing Club, 2475 W. Cheyenne Ave., family members said. He even brought his oldest son to Steele’s gym for training.
Steele said the two remained friends after Art opened his own gym, and when he heard about the killings of 38-year-old Yadira and 10-year-old Karla, he immediately wanted to help. All proceeds from Saturday afternoon’s boxing event will go toward the Martinez family.
“We have a big turnout,” Steele said, looking out at the seats filled surrounding the ring. “I just hope that it will be able to help him.”
Ken Seal, a former boxer and Art’s brother-in-law, said boxing has been Art’s passion aside from raising his family.
“I think the event itself will just light another fire for him,” Seal said.
Art — who is undergoing rigorous cognitive, speech and physical therapy sessions five days a week — hugged family and friends as they stopped to offer support during the boxing rounds.
The scene brought a smile to the face of his sister, Gaudia Martinez-Seal, who said the family is clinging to its faith and trying to remain strong despite indescribable pain.
“In the middle of this tragedy, we’ve seen that we have people who care,” she said. “That makes us happy. That makes us strong.”
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