As the Lamborghini passed the cemetery mid-prayer service, they knew he was headed home.
Joey Muni was the life of the party, in a good way.
He was always smiling and with his friends, and known to be the player blasting music in the locker room, or out of his car.
He spent much of his time on the ice, playing hockey for the Wheatfield Blades, wearing No. 88 because Patrick Kane was his favorite player. He played hockey and lacrosse at Niagara Wheatfield until he graduated in 2023, and went to Alfred State for a semester and was on the lacrosse team.
Muni loved sports cars and helping others, specifically youth with mental and physical challenges. He always looked forward to “Skate with SABAH” with his NW team, which was when he and his teammates would get on the ice with kids with special needs in the Western New York area.
He was the type of kid that left a hockey practice early to attend a birthday party with a teammate, and they were the only two that showed up. It meant the world to this kid.
“He was a hard ass with us and a tough guy, but at the end of the day, he had the biggest heart,” Craig Muni, his father, said.
These are just a few ways the Muni family wants people to remember Joey, who took his own life in April 2024.
“I had no idea,” Danielle Muni, Joey’s mother, said. “We really had no idea this was gonna happen. Not a clue.”
They were a close family that did everything together —- from vacations to sports to grabbing food, they thought they had “the life.”
“Don’t think it can’t happen to you,” Danielle warned.
The Munis feel that had there been more education in the community about warning signs and what to look for, they could have helped Joey.
To honor him and move through the grieving process, the Muni family decided the best way to help themselves was to help others. They decided on creating the Joey Muni Memorial Foundation, knowing that Joey would want them to give back in remembrance of him.
There were a lot of helping hands in creating the foundation, and setting up a meat raffle fundraiser at the Knights of Columbus Hall in North Tonawanda, which fits 400 people.
The fundraiser was so big they had to turn people away.
“We started thinking that this is actually bigger than we thought, and we’re gonna make it grow,” Craig said.
In addition to the donations from friends and family, West Herr donated two scholarships for Erie Community College to the memorial fund and the Muni family hopes to give away at least one scholarship each year and be involved with selecting the student, whether it’s an athlete on the hockey team or not, that is awarded the scholarship.
They plan to donate to mental health organizations in an effort to make sure other families do not experience what they went through, and hope to add a public education aspect to the foundation so people are aware of alarming trends.
Danielle is becoming a nationally certified mental health first aid trainer through COMPEER, a non-profit organization in Buffalo. She feels if she can help be an agent of change in the rise of suicides, it will be a step in the right direction.
“Bottom line is I just want to help,” Danielle said. “There’s not enough education or attention paid to mental health and suicide, and it’s a growing problem. If I can help change that and the stigma, that’s what I want to do. I can’t change what happened to my son, but maybe my purpose now is to help others,” Danielle said.