Prayers filled the air, and candles lit the way during an emotional night Thursday in Stratford. Dozens of people from the community joined hand-in-hand at the American Shakespeare Theatre grounds to pray for a missing boy and his family.

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for the 6-year-old boy who apparently drowned in the Housatonic River in Stratford. Authorities are now asking boaters and fishermen to be on the lookout for the child, who fell into the water at the Birdseye Boat Ramp on Wednesday afternoon. “Stratford came out as a community in unity,” says Elder William Kevin Rogers, of Word of Life Fellowship Ministries in Bridgeport. “We’re all praying for a positive resolution with this.” Magdalene Smith, the missing boy’s mother, says her son had a smile that lit up the room. “He did not deserve to go like this,” Smith says. “He had his whole life ahead of him.” Smith is asking everyone to continue praying and to hug their loved ones tight as her young son remains missing.