Hello to all friends, family and supporters of little Gabriel. It's been a week since I posted on here and that is partly because I am catching my breath and my second wind. The event caught up to me and I felt my own grief over the tragic loss we all suffered when Gabriel drowned.

The other reason that I hesitated to post is that I wanted ample time for the funeral and river photos to be top feature out of respect. I hope you really appreciated the beautiful flowers that some of Gabriel's loved ones took to the site where he crossed over. It was a labor of love indeed.

Here is the update on what's happening. We are still gathering floating donations that are coming by mail and routing them to the cemetery. Some folks are sending money orders directly to the cemetery and I know at least one person sent one directly to Woodstock at his home by my request. We don't know how much has been raised total for the name plaque yet, but I'll call the cemetery tomorrow to find out from Charles. My cell phone does not work on Highway 101 so if you need to reach me, Summer Breeze, or Raven, email us at angelsforgabriel@gmail.com.

I intend to launch a full scale fundraiser again in hopes of raising the total needed to pay off whatever costs remain for the grave plaque. If you want to help in any way, you can send money to the cemetery or donate to paypal at angelsforgabriel@gmail.com. Be sure to write a memo that it is for Gabriel Jaden Coates Memorial Fund. If you want to sponsor an angel fundraiser under our foundation, contact me for instructions.

I'll post any new updates tomorrow.

Thank you all for your love, compassion and support during this heartbreaking time. May the peace of Jesus Christ give us comfort.

Angels for Gabriel

Photo Credit: Summer Breeze, a/k/a The Midnight Writer
The Spiritual Essence of Gabriel captured at the drowning site.

We wish to express our sincerest heartfelt thanks to all who gave compassionately in this cause to pay for precious Gabriel's coffin. Thank God for providing the compassionate moving on your hearts. Today, we celebrate for a few moments. Then we begin the race to complete the fund raising for the cemetery so little Gabriel can be laid to rest and his family can begin their healing process.

The Coffin is completely paid. We still need over $1500.00 for the cemetery to cover the plot and the burial. Please stay with us until this is finished. Spread the word far and wide family and friends. We need you now as much as we needed you last week.

Send paypal donations to angelsforgabriel@gmail.com and mark them Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund.

Today is the deadline to pay for the coffin. We still need a total of $650.00 so please keep on with your fund raising efforts. Donations can be made over the phone by credit card directly to the funeral home today. After this evening, please send all donations by paypal or direct bank deposit. The remaining funds raised will go to the cemetery for plot and burial services.

The funeral services take place Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 4:20 pm at :

Girdner Funeral Chapel
202 South Oregon Street
Yreka, California 96067
(530) 842-3434

The cemetery needs $1593.00 to cover the plot and the burial. The service in Arcata takes place on Thursday between 4-4:30pm.

Greenwood Cemetery
1757 J Street, Arcata, CA. 95901
(707) 822-1664.

Donations can be made directly to the cemetery over the phone by credit card, but the manager Charles Howard, would rather have all funds go to the Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund for record keeping purposes. He prefers it that way although we won't discourage other donations.

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

Hello everyone. We have good news and some news that is a little disquieting. Today is the deadline to pay for the coffin. Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund just made a payment by paypal card to Girdner Funeral Parlor in the amount of $550.00. Thank you all for your donations and especially for your compassionate love.

Here is the breakdown on the coffin charges, as we understand them right now.

$460.00 was paid by credit card telephone payments by other benefactors who responded to our plea for help on the Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund drive. Thank you's will be sent to all who gave and we are thinking of creating a memorial wall with names on the wall when we create the facebook account. I think that would be fitting to place the love associated with all who answered the call for young Gabriel to be laid to rest. Watch for announcement about that site. It will happen when we have a little breathing time.

That is a total paid on the coffin of $1,010.00 as of a half hour ago. It is 12:05 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

That is the good news.

What is the disheartening news?

We still need $250.00 paid today by 5 pm Pacific Time. If you can, call the Girdner Funeral Home and do what you can by that deadline.

The funeral parlor gave us a little leeway on the balance still owed of $400.00. We are sweating this a little but we have not given up hope in the good graces and compassion of the people. Raven and I are still fund raising in Yreka to see what can happen. The folks at the funeral parlor are giving us a few days to pay the remaining but we want to pay it so the efforts can move to covering the burial plot and other funeral expenses. That is another $1500.00 rounded off.

Good morning all you special people who have shown your various expressions of love and compassion through words, comfort by being there or by donations for this most special cause. Gabriel is indeed a beautiful soul.

(White) Raven and I (Summer Breeze) are sitting in Yreka figuring how much needs manifested for tomorrow by the deadline quoted by the funeral home to pay the balance on the coffin. Rounded off figures without calculating any donations not in hand we estimate that we still need $800.00 just for the coffin, give or take a few dollars. We'll tabulate exact amounts in the morning because it's hard to hold my laptop while sitting in the van's front seat with it on my lap. It makes me wonder why they call it a laptop. ha ha ha

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

The burial plot is approximately $1584.00 by the last estimate. At this time, there are no donations toward this part of the service for Gabriel because we are focusing on part one, get the coffin paid so Gabriel can be transported from Yreka to Arcata. The burial will take place on Thursday, June 4th in the Greenwood Cemetery in Arcata at 4:20 pm. I'll post address and directions tomorrow.

More photos of Gabriel arrived in my email inbox from Melissa, a friend of Woodstock's who is helping out at his house. I'll post those soon.

We're very busy running this fundraiser online and in person placing flyers all over Mount Shasta and Yreka and talking to people one on one. I spend many hours online updating, tweeting, plurking and announcing this cause on facebook and groups.

UPDATE: We are taking this Angels for Gabriel Memorial Foundation to new heights. All details will be posted after dear Gabriel is laid to rest. For now, all attention needs to be on him.

Watch for new twitter account to be announced, a facebook account, a myspace, a website, and other group links for Angels for Gabriel.

As of this morning at 10:40 am the donations total for the coffin have reached the sum of $410.00. That is still far from our goal of the needed total to pay for it by tomorrow at 5pm. The balance for the casket is at $1177.00.

NEW UPDATE: A donation of $200.00 was received this morning at the Girdner Funeral Chapel. Thank God and bless all these compassionate givers. Total needed for casket is $977.00 by tomorrow at 5pm.

We still need $1602.00 for the burial plot and cemetery fees once the coffin is paid in full. Please stay with us.

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

We'll be handing out flyers in Yreka today so please help us reach this goal so we can concentrate on funeral arrangements. God bless you and many heartfelt thanks to all of you who have so generously given.

We'll be updating the blog later with other news.

Angels for Gabriel

Gabriel Jaden Coates, 2 1/2 after a bath.

For the love of Gabriel.

We are striving to lay him in his final resting place. Please help make that happen soon.

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

Our efforts are going full force and we are hoping with all hope that the funds will start to roll in much faster. The total needed for the coffin at this point in time is $1417.87. We have raised $170.00 in three days so you can probably feel our anxiousness in seeing this total in donations climb.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

The amount listed above is only for the coffin. To cover the burial plot and funeral services, we have been quoted $1602. 00 to cover that part of the service. It would also be nice to have some funds for the wake so we can cover some food and flowers for the grave. There is also some printing of memorial brochures that needs to be done.

If someone wants to help us with the posters and flyers and signs that Raven and I are printing tomorrow or with the Memorial brochures, please send a donation with that notation on it. It all goes to Angels for Gabriel Memorial Fund though.

We are printing flyers to circulate around Siskiyou county in hopes to inspire some local folks here to contribute to this effort of love and compassion for Gabriel and his family. That covers Weed, Mount Shasta and Yreka, California.

Gabriel is resting at the funeral parlor in Yreka so we will be staying close to him for this effort until the service on Wednesday. Afterwards, he will be transported by his father Woodstock to McKinleyville where the burial and wake will take place. We are waiting on final date, location and instructions from Woodstock (Loren) regarding those details. As soon as we know anything, it will be posted here.

We'll continue to post updates on the fundraiser so you will know where the help is needed.

If you want to send flowers, I would suggest sending them to the final resting place so I'll post that information soon. Cards should be mailed to :

Loren David O'Connor
1829 Cliff Avenue,
McKinleyville, California 95519.

Please leave your comments on this blog to let the family know you are thinking of them. Share your loving and compassionate words for them to read because they check this blog regularly.

As always, thank you for caring.

Angels for Gabriel

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.