Being kind like Joey

The third-grader at Simon Butler Elementary never met Joey Edwards.

But 8-year-old Inchara Kadabagere feels his presence. She sees colorful painted rocks with encouraging messages in the school garden and brushes past peers in the hallway wearing bright yellow T-shirts with the hashtag #kindnesswins. Since a school assembly brought attention to Joey’s natural tendency to reach out to those feeling “left out,” she witnessed enough kind deeds to spark an entry in her Gratitude Journal last week.

“His kindness is what made everyone kind,” said Inchara, who has noticed more children at recess reaching out to kids sitting on a buddy bench who need a friend.

Months have passed since Unami Middle School student Joey Edwards was struck by a car and killed while riding his bike with friends on Lower State Road in Warrington. As the distance in time grows between his October death and the present, the family finds comfort in the signs of his legacy.

Yet, with the warmer weather comes echoes of kids playing outside, triggering painful reminders of loss, his mother said.

“There will be one less child playing outside,” said Marina Edwards. ”I miss him, but I feel him all around me every day.”

After reading Inchara’s journal entry on Facebook, Edwards is reminded that others feel her son's goodness, too. And she knows why.

Days after his death, letters poured in to her home and some made their way onto social media, all detailing the silent, everyday interactions of Joey. Her son was that boy who invited kids sitting alone to join him at his lunch table. He was that boy who brought a tea bag to school for a teacher who lost her voice from a cold. Another Unami teen told the Edwards family that Joey’s late-night conversations and friendship saved his life.

“Now we are hearing more stories about how people are thinking of him while they are doing things for others,” said Edwards, who is warmed by the connections sparked in the community that foster kind gestures.

Such silent everyday acts of kindness don’t usually get attention or win awards, she said. And so when neighbors, schools and businesses reached out to the Edwards family to ask what they could do, an idea to “honor Joey’s way” came to mind.

“We want to offer a scholarship to a student at CB South, the school he would have gone to, and we want it to go to someone kind like Joey," Marina Edwards said. "They don’t have to be a great athlete or have the best grades.”

The community’s support behind her idea was contagious, and with help from friends, a Kind Like Joey foundation was born, providing a way for people to contribute to the scholarship and help Marina start a local bereaved parents support group that meets the second Tuesday of each month at New Britain Baptist Church to support to families who have lost a school-aged child. On May 3, the foundation is hosting its first fundraiser, a golf outing and gala at Pinecrest Golf in Montgomery Township, the place where Joey loved to spend time with his father, Dan. The group is in the process of applying for 501c3 nonprofit status.

Melissa Kapur, who sits on the foundation’s board, said the scholarship and community movement is bringing attention to simple gestures that "everyone can do" to generate powerful changes, and mentioned the actions of a woman who helped a man who was seeking directions, get to a job interview on time. “He got that job, and she made a difference in someone’s day.”

Yellow bows line mailboxes and adorn local businesses to reflect a community that doesn’t forget. Joey’s best friend’s parents, Pete and Kimberly Nieves-Sosa, started sprinkling painted rocks with inspiring words on behalf of Joey’s goodness throughout Bucks County. People are finding the "Joey Rocks" under the shade of a tree at Core Creek Park in Middletown, at a counter at Rita’s water ice, on the lawn at Peddler's Village. One rock was found in a Harleysville doctor’s office that read, “Never give up.”

“People are so excited when they find them,” said Kapur, who reads the posts on the 759-member Kind Like Joey community Facebook site. “They find them and hide them again, or if they love them, they can keep them and make another one to find.”

Butler Elementary teacher Lanette Gilluly, Inchara's teacher, said the students love reading the messages on the rocks and now place them in a garden at the school, where Joey’s sister, 11-year-old Kayla, attends.

“If anyone is feeling sad, they can go to those rocks and read them so they can feel happy,” said Kayla, who painted a rock that reads, “Have faith. Be kind.”

Gilluly, a teacher at Simon Butler for almost 25 years, said the lessons she’s taught “pale in comparison to the lesson Joey has taught them in the short time they have come to know him.”

“Each time they tell me how they were ‘kind like Joey,' I tell them how proud Joey is to see that, through their actions, they are making a difference in our classroom, in our school, in our community, in our world," she said.

What: Kind Like Joey Golf Outing & Gala

When: Friday, May 3; golf begins at 1 p.m. following 12:30 p.m. shotgun start. Banquet doors open at 6 p.m.

Where: Pine Crest Country Club, 101 Country Club Drive, Montgomery Township

Information: Banquet includes four-hour open bar and buffet, and a raffle with more than 70 baskets and a silent auction. For tickets, email kindlikejoey@gmail.com.

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