SUNBURY -- Live music filled the air in Cameron Park in Sunbury Sunday evening as people celebrated the life of Melissa Moyer.
Missy, as she was better known, drowned last week on the Maine coast while visiting a friend.
"It's more for gather and letting people share their own memories, dancing and having fun, everything that was my sister," said Megan Aikey.
Megan Aikey says this gathering will be the first of many celebrations of life for her sister.
All the money raised will go to Missy's son, Alex, to help him after the tremendous loss of his mother.
"This money will be an ongoing fundraiser for him to live life to the fullest like my sister would want him to," said Aikey.
It was a strange twist of fate that led to the drowning deaths after Moyer and her friend, Amy Stiner, were hiking in Maine, got lost and were rescued.
But, then, they took a wrong turn, and the van they were in went off the boat ramp into the water.
Stiner moved to Maine recently with her husband. Both were from Columbia County, and Stiner was seven months pregnant.
Loved ones say the women's deaths came as a major blow.
"She's just the most remarkable woman, said Moyer's cousin, Tonya Reader. "And, to have lost her at such a young age is such a tragedy."
While Missy Moyer's family and friends will miss her, they're now able to look back on all the positive things she brought to their lives and the love that carries on with her gone.
"You can see the love she had for people, and people had for her, to be here and come together to celebrate her life. Just an amazing turnout," said Reader.
Moyer's family wants everyone to learn from what happened and to be aware of ways to escape a vehicle if it becomes submerged in water.