Several local businesses and residents are donating to Joshua’s family to help them after such a tragedy. One of those businesses is J Mel’s VIP Barber Lounge in West Chester. For the week of Thanksgiving, owner J Mel is donating 10% of his revenue to the family.
“Thanksgiving week is a very busy time for me so I figured it would be a great time to be able to donate something, and I’ve had a couple other salons ... and local businesses around that are chipping in with donations as well,” said J Mel.
He told me that he was unable to help search for Joshua, and that’s one of the big reasons why he wants to help now.
“I saw hundreds of people out searching, helicopters, drones, dive teams, because I live right around the corner in the area so I’ve seen all of that going on,” said J Mel. “I’ve never seen here, the community here come together like that, so it was great to see everyone coming together as people and helping one person.”
J Mel has spoken with Joshua’s family and says they are thankful for everyone’s help during this time of tragedy.
“I met with them yesterday and they were first thankful for everyone for coming out and helping them, and for the whole community coming together,” said J Mel. “And I met with them today and it was very emotional, but still thankful and they really appreciate it, and they wanna bring more awareness to autism.”
Joshua’s family has begun a Change.org petition to push for a new type of alert system similar to an Amber Alert for when a child goes missing. The alert would be specified for missing children with spectrum disorders, called the “Joshua Alert.”
In the petition, the family says, that if such an alert was instituted they “might have had a fair chance of finding our son in time.”
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