The prayers of hope and support echoed through a Jersey City street last night during a prayer vigil for Ardie Fuqua Jr., the local comedian who was critically injured alongside Tracy Morgan in a multi-car crash last month.

Wegman Parkway was the site where more than 100 neighbors and family gathered last night to pray for Fuqua, 43, who is undergoing rehabilitation to recover from the major injuries he suffered in the June crash.

Fuqua's father, Ardie Fuqua Sr., said the turnout "lets me know that the people care. It lets me know that the people see me when I don't think they see me."

A small platform was set up on Wegman Parkway, where both Fuqua and his parents live, around 6 p.m. as the vigil began. Local pastors, as well as those from Bayonne, read Scripture passages, sang hymns and called on everyone to support not only Fuqua, but Morgan and all those suffering throughout Jersey City.

"We wanted to just gather as a community, as a family, just to let [the Fuqua family] know that there are people all over praying for them," said the Rev. Dorothy Patterson, of the Wallace Temple AME Zion Church in Bayonne.

Fuqua's mother, Doris, said she wasn't surprised by the turnout for the vigil in the tightly-knit community on Wegman Parkway where she and her husband have lived since 1966.

"I expected it," Doris Fuqua said with a smile. "It's a very close community. Ardie was born and raised on this block, so they all know him."

People stood both in the street and sidewalk holding lit candles as they listened to the speakers. The quiet one-way street, which is located between Ocean and Garfield avenues, was lined with towering sycamore trees that residents had hung green-and-black ribbons on – colors which Doris Fuqua recently said symbolized brain trauma.

Arnold Matthews, who lives on the street, said he watched Ardie Fuqua Jr. grow up over the years. Matthews, who is also on the Wegman Parkway Block Association which organized the vigil, said the service was "uplifting" in a community where everyone knows and looks out for one another.

"We have a strong bond here," Matthews said, "and we hope to spread it."

Councilwoman-At-large Joyce Watterman, who also spoke at the vigil as a pastor, said the gathering was like a "family atmosphere" and was it was "so important to show support in times like these."

Morgan and Fuqua, in addition to others, were riding in a limo bus from a comedy show in Dover when it was struck by a tractor-trailer on June 7. The crash also left James McNair, known as "Jimmy Mack," dead.

Ardie Fuqua Sr. said his son, who sustained a broken leg and other injuries in crash, is "talking" and "joking," but his condition is "basically the same" as he undergoes rehabilitation.

Sarah Greene, Ardie Fuqua Jr.'s aunt, said her nephew was "on his way back," but his recovery is going to be an "uphill battle."