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Football fans packed the Upper Deck Bar and Grille on Main Street in Mount Airy last week to support their team on the gridiron as well as a town family.

Patrons wearing jerseys scarfed down burgers and beers at the Chris Amoss Memorial Football Party as they watched the Washington Redskins take on the Cincinnati Bengals.

The scene is common, as residents have been coming together and reaching out to help the Amoss family.

Chris Amoss, 32, a Mount Airy husband and father of two, died recently leaving behind his wife, Maureen, and daughters Natalie, a fifth-grader at Mount Airy Elementary, and Keely, a kindergartner at Parr's Ridge Elementary.

Amoss died on Oct. 13 from complications due to sleep apnea, according to his mother Ann Tiebosch, who said he was recently diagnosed with the condition.

"People don't realize how dangerous it really is," she said. "It was just so sudden; no one expected it."

Tracy Rouchard, a neighbor of the family and family friend Tanya Miller knew the family, and felt they should do something to help.

Rouchard said she had seen Miller at chamber of commerce events, but didn't know her well until partnering to help the family.

"Tonya really wanted to help, and I had really wanted to help, so we came up with a list of events to help the family," she said.

Miller said she knew she had to do something.

"Maureen is such a good person," Miller said. "She is there for anyone at any time. Anybody that knows her would want to help her by any means."

Rouchard said she was meeting a friend for lunch at the Old Towne Restaurant shortly after Amoss died, and was chatting with Dan Caiola, who owns the restaurant with wife Staci.

"He asked what was going on and I told him about the situation," Rouchard said.

"He didn't even know the family and he said ‘I'm in. You come up with it, and I'm in,'" she said. "He's just awesome."

Rouchard said she volunteers periodically with the schools and PTA, but was moved to help "mainly because it was someone we knew that needed help."

After Amoss died, the family's home heating system went out, as well as a refrigerator, and the car began having trouble, said Tiebosch. Maureen is a stay-at-home mom because of the younger daughter's severe food allergies.

"It's like Murphy's Law has unleashed a whole gamut of nonsense," she said.

Tiebosch said Amoss loved life and touched everyone he met. "He had a long commute, came home at night, and still managed to read his girls a bedtime story," Tiebosch said. Amoss worked at EuroMotorcars in Bethesda.

He would often work outside with Keely. "She did everything with her daddy," Tiebosch said. With older daughter Natalie, Amoss would get more artistic: the two would write poems and sing.

"He had a way with both girls with what he did," she said of the father who also coached basketball and softball.

She said there were lines at his funeral and the processional. "It was just that large," she said. "He loved life and was a wonderful person. Just having him in our life for 32 years. We're very fortunate."

Past fundraisers for the family include a dinner at Old Towne Restaurant in November that raised more than $1,000, and an event at the Upper Deck Bar and Grill in December that raised more than $1,000, Rouchard said.

Other fundraisers have included and local Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, and a Greene Turtle event organized by Amoss's sister, Johanna Tiebosch. Ann Tiebosch said she was thankful for Green Turtle's owner Frank Illiano.

"He has been wonderful with the family since day one," Tiebosch said. "It's just wonderful the way the community is helping. We're all just struck with everything and very appreciative."

She said she's amazed and not only the community, but individuals who don't even know them. "We receive cards in the mail and they don't even sign their name on a gift certificate," she said.

She said the family is thankful for all the support in such a hard time.

"[Maureen has] lost her best friend and the children have lost their father, we've lost a son and brother," said Tiebosch. "It's terrible. We'll get through it, but we'll never get over it."

As the family copes with loss, the community continues to offer support. Rouchard said there is one remaining fundraiser, a raffle, which was organized by Miller and her husband, Ray, through the 4-County Lion's Club.

Miller, a member of the club, said it is holding a raffle for a one-week Wyndam Penthouse Suite vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The winner will stay in a four-bedroom, three-bath penthouse suite and will receive four days of golf for a foursome from March 7 through 14.

"It's includes the four rounds of golf, but you don't have to do it," she laughed, citing other activities, such as the beach as being more attractive to some.

Tickets are one for $10 and three for $25. The package value is $4,000, according to a press release from the club.

There is also a second prize of $500 cash. Fifty percent of the money earned will go the Amoss family and the rest will be used for the club's charity work, Miller said.

Tickets will be for sale until the end of January. Those interested in tickets can call Ray Miller at 301-370-3046.

"Everybody who knows them loves them tremendously," Miller said. "I would want anybody to do that for me."