Angels for Gabriel Memorial Foundation has a twitter account and we would all like to invite you to follow us at @angels4gabriel.

Watch for announcements about upcoming fund drives, spiritual blessings and insights and stories of Gabriel's life. Follow us as we take his life and the hope he gives to others through the foundation named in Gabriel Jaden Coates honor to help other families in times of grief who face this same sorrow. Losing a small child is probably one of the most grievous things that can happen to anyone. In honor of Gabriel, this foundation will offer the same moral and monetary support to other families who need an angel and cannot afford a child's funeral. This will be one purpose. Other ways the foundation can serve will be decided and noted on this blog as well as twitter.

Angels for Gabriel Memorial Foundation will carry this little boys blessings and prayers of hope to others around the nation. Please walk with us and support this effort in memory of Gabriel.

In beloved memory of Gabriel Jaden Coates, we celebrate the memories of his life while resting in the assurance that he is in God's hands as a bright immortal spirit. We have hope in knowing that we shall be together in eternity with Gabriel some day. Life is eternal and all things work according to God's will. We need only trust in Him and peace will come within.

Today we continued our fund raising efforts in a different way. We (Raven & Summer Breeze) set up an angels display using the same display method we used for our mother who died from leukemia. This display of angels with flyers and prayer books and a ledger to sign opens up dialogue with people who want to share compassion and stories.

Angels for Gabriel will inspire, console, uplift, assist in mourning and give hope to thousands across the nation as this Memorial Foundation travels the nation in honor of Gabriel Jaden Coates. May he shine brighter than the brightest stars in eternity. We love you 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.

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

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.