People need several ways to make donations to the fund for the Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund. I am posting that information here to make it easier for those who don't have a paypal account.

To make a donation to the paypal account set up for Gabriel's memorial fund, email angelsforgabriel@gmail.com. Or click the button below which will take you directly there. There is a donation located in the sidebar of this blog as well.

Memorial Fund for Gabriel

Direct bank deposits can be sent to the account we established for this fund. Here are the instructions:

Bank Branch: Wells Fargo
Person managing account: Cheryl Lynn Gardner
Savings Account No: 5763972659
Routing Number: 121000248

Please send all money orders and checks payable to Cheryl Lynn Gardner with the memo Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund. Mail to : 1829 Cliff Avenue, McKinleyville, California 95519.

Call to verify at 240-863-6250 on my cell if you send anything or email angelsforgabriel@gmail.com. We have a person on that end who will make bank deposits for us so we can access the funds while we are in the Yreka area.

Another option is to moneygram to Walmart in Yreka, California with the receiver noted as Cheryl or Rickey Gardner. Again, please confirm by email that you sent funds so they can be picked up. This is a viable pick up point until Wednesday morning. The first service will take place at 4:20 pm in Yreka when we pick up little Gabriel for transport to McKinleyville/Arcata, California. I just spoke to Woodstock today Saturday, May 30, 2009 and he is making cemetery plot decisions and will be making funeral arrangements on that end.

Wednesday evening June 3 until June 7, all moneygrams or Western Unions should be sent to Arcata, California with the receiver as Rickey or Cheryl Gardner.

The other option is to mail a check or pay by credit card directly to the Funeral parlor. The address is listed in the sidebar. Please notify by email to the same one given above if you make this choice so we can keep track of how much is being paid for the casket and how much we need for the services. We'll post a notice whenever the casket is paid in full, at which time all money should go to paypal or the bank account or to moneygram to handle the other arrangements.

Thank you for your donations and your love.
Summer Breeze

Remember family and friends, that someone will do it, is you. Please be part of the love and compassion this family needs so much right now. God bless us all.

Memorial Fund for Gabriel

May 2009. This is the final place where Gabriel walked on this earth. Please share it in remembrance of him.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this today because I miss a little boy named Gabriel. Watching his brother Raven and his father Woodstock, a/k/a Loren David O'Connor, suffer through the pain of their loss while trying to make arrangements for his burial, memorial and wake is really hard. Gabriel Jaden Coates was with us for a short 3 years, 3 months and 2 days, yet he has made a profound impression on the hearts of people that will last forever. He left this earth to enter the spirit world on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at about 11 am. Gabriel fell into the water of the Antelope Creek, which was fast moving and deep. His body was recovered by very compassionate rescue workers about two hours later.

Woodstock, Raven, his friends and family are sort of moving in a state of unreal shock. Things need to get done. So we are helping in whatever way we can. Funds are urgently needed to buy the casket and to buy a plot where he will be laid to rest. Please spread the word and help in whatever way you can.

Please visit the dedication site for Gabriel at http://www.angelsforgabriel.org. News and information about his memorial, burial and wake will be posted on this blog. Lots of pictures will be loaded soon that I took of the gathering site where little Gabriel drowned. We took photos of the creek and the campsite where he laughed, played and enjoyed. There is a very spiritual picture on the site now that shows what we believe is Gabriel's spirit that appeared while Woodstock and I were standing by the stream talking about Gabriel, about what happened, about his life, about what to do now. It is then that we both felt his presence and a butterfly landed on Woodstock after that moment. I took a photo in the direction of where they found Gabriel's body in the water and that is where the column of light appeared. It was an intense, sad, happy, etherical time.

We will be assisting Woodstock with transferring of funds to the Funeral home when it is placed on the paypal in the amount we need. The general manager Chris Girdner at the Girdner Funeral Chapel is giving us until Tuesday at closing time to come up with the total for the casket. This is urgent. Other arrangements are being made and other funds are needed very much. Please email angelsforgabriel@gmail.com if you have questions or if you want to help in some way.

The Forest Service, the fire department, the Siskiyou county Sheriff's department, the Fish and Game dept. personnel, and the townspeople volunteers from Tennant were very gentle, kind, compassionate during the entire ordeal. We are all grateful to them for the way they handled this situation.

I have many things to write and memorial signs and brochures to make, and a website to update, so please help us facilitate this link being spread far and wide to get the funds together. Gabriel deserves a decent casket, memorial, burial and wake. Help us give him that much, please. Woodstock should not have to concern himself with money at a time like this. Right now we are all camping in our rigs while this is all taking place, so family please plug into this compassionate service.

Much love and blessings.
Summer Breeze on behalf of Woodstock, Raven, Gabriel & Raven and
Jazzy all his friends and family.

This blog is dedicated to a beautiful young soul who chose to leave this earth after three short years. While he was here, Gabriel touched the hearts of many lives and deeply touched the heart of his father and brother whom he left behind. Gabriel will always be remembered for the love he gave to those who knew this little man. He will be greatly missed on earth and always remembered. As a tribute, this blog is for Gabriel and his story. May it inspire others and move them to compassion. May it give a sense of timelessness while reminding us all how temporary life on earth can be for any one of us. Cherish those whom you love and are spending time with while they are here.

Please contribute to Gabriel's Memorial Fund. His grieving Father would appreciate any help in gathering funds to lay his soul to rest and to pay for a memorial service. Send donations by paypal to angelsforgabriel@gmail.com or click the donate button in the sidebar. God bless you for your compassion.

The Memorial Service information will be announced on this blog for those who want to contribute. We will be posting photos of Gabriel Jaden Coates in celebration of his life. We will be uploading photos of the gathering where he made his crossing into the eternal world. Pray for comfort for his family.

News reports about the drowning. Please keep in mind that these reports may not be completely accurate.
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Mail Tribune

Boy, 3, drowns in Siskiyou County creek

May 25, 2009

A 3-year-old California boy camping with family members drowned Sunday in a Siskiyou County creek, police say.

Gabriel Jaden Coates was attending a gathering at an unimproved camp on Antelope Creek two miles south of the Siskiyou County town of Tennant, said Susan Gravenkamp, a Siskiyou County sheriff's office spokeswoman.

The boy and a brother, 9, had gone for a walk, and the older boy returned to the camp and said Gabriel was being watched by someone else, Gravenkamp said. When the boy's father, Loren David O'Conner, of McKinleyville, went to check on the toddler, he was no longer with the person who had been watching him, Gravenkamp said.

She said people at the gathering searched for the boy for two hours before contacting police.

Police officers, Forest Service employees, search and rescue volunteers and citizens continued the search and found the boy's body in the creek that afternoon, Gravenkamp said.

— Staff reports
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Record Searchlight Online

Boy found dead in Siskyou County at Rainbow Gathering

By Record Searchlight staff
Originally published 03:21 p.m., May 25, 2009
Updated 03:21 p.m., May 25, 2009

TENNANT -- A 3-year-old boy was found dead in a creek Sunday afternoon by rescue crews after the boy had wandered away from his family's Rainbow Gathering campsite, officials said.

About 30 members of the nomadic Rainbow Gathering group had gathered over the weekend off of Highway 97 on Antelope Creek in rural Siskiyou County, said Siskiyou County sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp.

Around 11 a.m., Gabriel Jaden Coates, 3, and his 9-year old brother had gone for a walk away from the campsite, Gravenkamp said.

The older brother returned to camp to get some candy and told his father, Loren David O’Connor, 32, of McKinleyville that another person at the camp was watching the boy, Gravenkamp said.

Gabriel never returned, and O’Connor went to check on him.

"The person watching Gabriel said the little boy was just there just a few minutes earlier," Gravenkamp said.

The campers searched for Gabriel for about two hours and then one of them drove to a residence in Tennant and called for help, she said.

A few hours later, a firefighter found the boy dead, under the water entangled in the limbs of a tree that had fallen across the creek about 50 feet downstream from the camp site, Gravenkamp said.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the boy's exact cause of death.