On June 22, 2015, State College lost a hard-working family man in Joel Reed.
An accident at the intersection of Atherton Street and Park Avenue killed Reed and left his wife and two kids without a husband and father.
Friends of the Reed family set up a fundraiser to help out the family in the wake of the tragic accident.
Through gofundme.com, the fundraiser has raked in $2,945 for the family in 24 days, a significant amount but far shy of the $50,000 goal set by Ebun Adewumi, a longtime friend of Reed’s wife, Deanne.
“I have been friends with Deanne Reed since we were in middle school,” Adewumi says. “Through Deanne I met Joel and saw what an amazing and caring guy he was. I would love to be able to set Deanne and the boys up with a little financial security so that money isn’t something she will have to worry about for a little bit.”
Reed was the quintessential family man, working two jobs to take care of his family while spending as much time with his two sons as possible. Ethan Reed turns three next month, and Holden Reed is just eight months old. Reed’s wife is heartbroken that her sons will grow up without their father.
“After we had our son Ethan, Joel said that he was his best buddy and he couldn’t wait for him to get older to really be able to work on stuff with him,” she says. “Every time he was doing something, Ethan wanted to help and Joel would take the time and have patience with him, whether it was mowing the lawn or carving a pumpkin. They had so much fun. They would get into a lot of trouble together.”
Reed was a university employee by day and window tinter by night. He worked as an assistant manager in informational technology in the Department of Educational Equity. He also owned Xtreme Ridez LLC, a custom window tinting business operated from his home.
“He would work at Penn State during the day and come home and do automobile window tinting in the garage here,” Deanne Reed says. “His goal had been to work really hard in these early years to spend lots of times when the kids got a little older doing sports and stuff with them, so that the house would be paid off and the car would be paid off.”
Reed is extremely thankful that friends are chipping in to help out her family in its time of need, but it seems that her husband has built up plenty of good karma.
“If a friend needed anything, he would do his best to help them, whether it went from helping them financially to taking time to help them fix something at their house,” she says. “He was there. He was ready and willing.”
And now, those friends are giving back to the Reed family when they need it most.
“I feel like God has really blessed us despite this tragedy,” Reed says. “There just aren’t words to know that there are people trying to fill in the gaps where he can’t provide for us now. I feel blessed by people’s generosity that they care enough to take care of my boys.”
You can donate to the Reed family by visiting the gofundme.com page here.
