Gaetan’s Memorial Ride on Saturday Sept 13, 2014

A member of our stuttering community passed away in a motorcycle accident on August 2nd, and his family organized an ATV ride in his honor on Sept 13th. “Gate” was a mentor to a teen who stutters, and he was trying to start a stuttering support group in the Northeast Kingdom when he passed. The ride was to raise funds to support stuttering awareness and to fulfill Gate’s wish to get support for people who stutter around Vermont. Details about Gate and the ride are below.

GD ride

  1. There were 44 people who attended and we all met in Pittsburg, NH at the Buck Rub Restaurant for lunch from noon time to 2PM.
  2. It was only 40 degrees when we started and by 2PM it rain the rest of the afternoon.
  3. Not all had rain gear and we provided black garage bags (as rain gear) to the group that were cold.
  4. More than half the group were on ATVs where they took off from Colebrook, NH for a 87 mile loop to Pittsburg, back through Canaan VT and back to Colebrook.
  5. The balance were motorcycles and couple of cars to bring the shirts that said “Brotherhood Ride In” on the front and in the back of the shirt were mountain ranges with pictures of ATV, motorcycle, motor boat and snowmobile. This is what Gate loved to do.
  6. At the restaurant we told stories about Gate.

Information Gate’s brother wanted to share about his stuttering:

— Gate started stuttering when he was 5 years old.

— Both grade school, junior high and high school were difficult for him as he was the only one that stuttered in his class. Classmates made fun of him, and this was sad for my brother.

— Gate then went out of state to attend a conference week-end for people like him that stuttered. Gate was so happy to know there were other people just like him.

— He study, read books, more seminars, etc. on how he could improve his speech so he would stutter less. He learn the more stressful he was the more he stuttered.

— Gate always want to finish a sentence. He did not like it when someone finished it for him.

— He liked it when he had eye contact when he was talking.

— Gate attended classes to help others who stuttered.

— When my Brother Gate passed away on August 2, 2014, at age 50, his stuttering was almost gone and we never noticed it.

Gate was a mentor and wonderful advocate for people who stutter– he will be missed!

GD ride 2