Through individual donations and fundraising events held over the weekend, more than $10,000 has been raised for the family of a Providence Forge man who was killed last month in a James City County supermarket.
Gabe Maness, 34, of Providence Forge, died after he was shot on April 17 inside the Norge Farm Fresh store at 115 Norge Lane.
Phillip Murdock, lead minister of LifePointe Christian Church in Toano, said a member of his church came up with the idea for a run/walkathon to raise funds for the Maness family. The event was held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the store were the fatal shooting occurred.
Murdock said the church was able to offer the support and resources needed to organize the event. But when it came to asking Farm Fresh management for its “blessing and partnership” to host the event, he didn’t know how they would respond.
“Farm Fresh absolutely jumped on board,” Murdock said. “They said, ‘We think this is great. We’ll support you any way we can.’ ”
Hundreds of people came out for the event, Murdock said, with some raising money for the family based on the number of laps they ran.
“The main reason why we wanted to do this was because we felt like many people in our church family were asking, ‘How can we help?’ ” Murdock said. “Everyone you bumped into wanted to help but had no clue how to help this family.”
In addition to the run/walkathon, a car wash benefiting the family was held Saturday at Colonial Carwash on Richmond Road.
Murdock said the events raised a couple of thousand dollars, LifePointe Christian Church collected another couple of thousand dollars from its members and an online fundraiser secured more than $1,500.
All of the money collected will go directly to the Maness family, which includes Maness’s wife, Kristy, and their two daughters. Their youngest daughter was born Saturday morning, Murdock said.
People who encountered the run/walkathon were “so touched by the story,” Murdock said.
“It was neat to see the community come out and rally behind this family most of them don’t know, because (the shooting) happened here,” he added.
Anyone interested in supporting the Maness family can mail a donation to Kristy Maness, c/o Extreme Climates Inc., P. O. Box 14291, Newport News, VA 23608.
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