The family of Reese Fallon joined friends and neighbours at a fundraising barbeque held in her honour at a Greektown park Wednesday evening.

Fallon was one of the two people killed in a shooting rampage on the Danforth last month.

"This community is putting their arms around this family and holding them tight," Amanda Wood, a friend of Fallon's mother, said at the event.

"We just want to let the family know that we're there for them," Lisa Telio, a neighbour of the Fallon family, said.

Telio was also on the Danforth that night and says she was lucky to have escaped the gunman by running away as he fired indiscriminately into crowds.

"To wake up the next morning and realize your friend's daughter didn't make it — we don't want them to have to worry about anything for the next while," she said.

Funds raised at the event will go to the Fallon family and to the Reese Fallon scholarship fund.

A poster for the fundraising event, seen in a local restaurant in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood. (Lorenda Reddekopp/CBC News)

The 18-year-old was about to begin her first year at McMaster University's nursing program. The scholarship set up for students at Malvern Collegiate — Fallon's alma mater — who wish to study nursing at the Hamilton university.

"We're hoping it could last up to 100 years," Wood added, saying that the amount of support they're receiving is "overwhelming."

Marcie Pekar, a close friend of the family, told CBC Toronto that Fallon's parents are "heartbroken."

"They're drowning, just in a constant state of drowning," she said.

The Fallon family knew that attending the event would be difficult, but Pekar said they wanted to say thank you.

'We're going to hold you'

"This is a community that's said 'we're going to hold you, because you can't hold yourselves right now,'" said Pekar, who has a child the same age as Reese and another the age of one of her younger siblings.

She said Fallon's mother, Claudine deBeaumont, described the support they've received as a "big community arm that's wrapping around their family and this is an opportunity for [the family to show] gratitude."

The fundraiser, held at Bob Acton Park, at Gerrard Street E. and William Hancox Avenue included a barbeque, music from local residents, as well as a raffle and auction.

Legendary singer, Jim Cuddy, also showed up to the event.

"There's not a lot of way you can feel a part of your community. To rally support for a family that suffered an unimaginable loss, is something you can do," he said.

Emma Brown, an event planner who went to high school with Fallon's mother, helped organize the fundraiser as a way to do something for the family.

"I can't help them heal, so all I can do is help create an avenue for people to get together who also want to give."

Brown said she experienced an unbelievable amount of support, with so many people offering donations and everyone who was asked to help agreeing.

One unexpected response came when she reached out to an insurance company, inquiring about providing the event insurance free of charge.

The first answer she received: "'Kudos for reaching out, but we just don't donate insurance to this kind of scenario.' But in the end, they did."

Brown said one of the donors is Loblaws, where Fallon worked part-time, which is providing all the food and staff for the barbeque.

Mourners comfort one another as they arrive at Reese Fallon's funeral last month. (Martin Trainor/CBC)

Pekar says the support from the community is a great way to continue Fallon's legacy.

"Reese was a beautiful soul, she was an 18-year-old girl just starting her life, just starting to spread her wings and she would have set the world on fire," Pekar said, her voice breaking. "She had already started and she was making the world a better place."​