Donations pour in for family who lost pregnant mom, son
The outpouring of support for the family of a pregnant Douglass (Berks) Township woman who drowned along with her son in last week’s flash flooding has been overwhelming.
Friends, family and strangers from across the country have donated tens of thousands of dollars collectively over three different fundraisers created on the GoFundMe.com website in the aftermath of the deaths of Pamela Vera Snyder, 31, and Preston Dray, 9. Snyder was pregnant with a daughter, Evelynn Rose.
They died when the car they were riding in was swept away Thursday afternoon in a flash flood of the Manatawny Creek on Pine Forge Road in Douglass
Township.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the first GoFundMe fundraiser was created Friday morning with an initial goal of bringing in $10,000 to help with any expenses for Snyder’s family and her fiancé, Josh Knarr.
By Tuesday afternoon, almost $70,000 had been raised from 1,780 donors.
Traci Yohn Dotterer of Boyertown, the organizer of the page, posted a message on the page Saturday from Knarr who expressed his gratitude for the generosity of people who had reached out to him and his fiancee’s family.
“Josh is humbled by all of this and though he has very few words at this time; thankful and grateful for all of you are some of them,” Dotterer wrote. “It’s beautiful to see the community far and wide coming together at a time like this.”
Dotterer also indicated several local businesses and organizations had been in contact with the family to try to create fundraising events in the future.
In addition to the fundraiser created by Dotterer, a separate GoFundMe page with a goal of $5,000 was created on Friday to raise money to help pay for funeral expenses. By Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser had collected more than $13,000 from 408 donors.
A message on the page was posted on Sunday that no additional donations were needed because the goal was reached, but individuals continued to make donations throughout the day on Tuesday.
Snyder’s father, Rob, also posted a message on the page, thanking everyone for their help to help with the funeral and kind words added to the donations.
“People hope God will bless us, but he did bless us with 30-plus years with Pam and nine amazing years with Preston. Evy will be enjoyed at a later date,” her father wrote in his message.
A third donation page was created Friday by Diane Kubicke of Trenton, N.J., saying that Snyder and Knarr played large parts in the regional drag racing community and that money was being raised to help with any uncovered expenses. More than $6,900 from 124 donors had been collected by Tuesday afternoon, approaching its goal of $10,000.