The Tauranga community has rallied behind the family of Jack Dixon, donating food, raising almost $36,000, organising a paddleout and candlelight vigils.
Welcome Bay man Aaron Hopping wanted to help, so he organised last week's vigils and penned a letter to the family yesterday.
"I was on Facebook and this fella made some comment to a local page just asking about if we could help in any way," he said.
"Someone said they wanted to go down to the beach with a candle but they couldn't make it. That's when it hit me, maybe that could be a big thing that the community could do."
Mr Hopping could not make it to the beach himself on Wednesday night but started posting all over Facebook calling for people to go down to the beach with candles that night.