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Give Like Gavin: A Mother's Quest to Keep Her Son's Name Alive
The VIP Crew: I know this has been a major process from losing your son (motorcycle
accident) in May, to starting, The Gavin Bryant Dietrich Foundation, so I must ask, how
are you doing?
Lacie Dietrich: To be honest, that’s a very hard question to answer because the answer
is different everyday. Every day you wake up, the first thought on your mind is, I have to
navigate another day without my son. And how you navigate it changes from day to day.
Something that you can’t prepare yourself for. I’ve lost more loved ones that I could
count, and nothing compares. How am I doing… surviving would be the best answer.
The VIP Crew: Who was Gavin Bryant Dietrich?
Lacie Dietrich: It’s crazy because you always think you know your kids. You raise them,
they live in your home, you think you know everything about them, and then something
like this happens, and you learn so much more about your children when all these
people come together to celebrate this child’s life.
Let me back up and say, I always knew Gavin was a great child. He always had a smile
on his face. You could hug a person and it’s just hugging a person, there’s a different
kind of hug you get when you hug a certain person, you feel that hug. Gavin was that
hug. He was that kid. Gavin’s death brought so many people out to meet me that I had
never met before that told me so many stories about my son. Every one of these stories
had something to do with Gavin putting someone before himself, Gavin pushing
someone else into the limelight and standing behind them even though he was the one
that should’ve been in it, he didn’t care, he wanted the next person to shine bright. He
was always the one to take up for the child being bullied. The one who stayed after
practice to help the kid who wasn’t getting playing time. Letting him know what he
needed to do to get on the field. I always knew it, but to hear it, it hits a little different.
The VIP Crew: When you say the phrase, “Give Like Gavin,” I think your previous
answer summarizes it.
Lacie Dietrich: Absolutely! It wasn’t just me as his mom seeing him that way, everyone
that knew him viewed him that way. He would give you the shirt off of his back.
The VIP Crew: I’m sure everyday will be hard and present their own challenges
because he’s not here anymore, but did starting this foundation start restoring some
semblance of peace for you?
Lacie Dietrich: It gives me peace in a sense that I know he will never be forgotten. This
is part of the thing that chokes me up, you sit back and you watch everyone else go on
with their life. Which, life is fast and you have to, but as his mom, or his siblings, family
and friends, I know me personally, I’m stuck in that day. The world moves on, it has to. I
wanted something to exist that would always keep his name and the way he lived alive.
It’s given me a sense of peace, but it’s given me more of a way to feel like the world
won’t forget him.
The VIP Crew: Not only does the foundation grant you some sort of peace, but it will
inspire other kids to be kind as well, and I think that is awesome.
Lacie Dietrich: Thank you! That’s my hope. Kids today get stuck in these different
trends. If you look at social media, these kids don’t think they’re good enough unless
they look like this or they own this. I’d love to give something back to these kids to let
them know that’s not what it’s all about. When my son passed away, the funeral director
came to me after the funeral and said, “That was the biggest funeral that that funeral
home had ever seen.” There were over 500 hundred people that showed up for my son,
and it wasn’t because he had the coolest car, because he was an Instagram model, or
influencer on social media. It was because of the way he treated people and the way he
gave.
The VIP Crew: Not only are you keeping his name alive with the Gavin Bryant Dietrich
Foundation, but you always make sure to attach that #81 as well. What is the
significance of that number?
Lacie Dietrich: Absolutely! So, 81 was actually my oldest son’s football number. When
Gavin played varsity (Slidell High School) as well, he could not wait to come home the
day that he was told that he could wear #81 his senior year and tell us that he was
going to wear the number 81 like his brother. It holds a family meaning and he was very
proud of that football number.
The VIP Crew: What was the mentality while starting, The Gavin Bryant Dietrich
Foundation?
Lacie Dietrich: I was a little nervous at first. Looking at your son’s face over and over
again after you lose him, is a double-edged sword. It’s something you want to do, and
you want to repeat his name over and over, but you find yourself having days where it’s
hard to do it. My thought process basically began; I need something positive. I need to
get up every day, and I need to work towards something positive for him. A positive
memory opposed to getting up every day with tears falling because I’m remembering
that we have to do another day again without him. His loss is so fresh, I get the negative
emotions are going to be there, but going forward, I just wanted something for everyone
to have of him that’s positive.
I wasn’t sure how difficult it was going to be because I never started a non-profit before.
This was new to me. I did my research and dug in, and it was simpler than I thought. I
had so much support. So many people reached out asking what they could do. I’m
finally getting to that point now of wrapping my head around sponsorships and how to
do the donations. It’s taking off. It went from a thought to a full-blown non-profit. It’s here
now.
The VIP Crew: What will this foundation represent?
Lacie Dietrich: The basis of the foundation was to do whatever we could to give back.
So, the way I organized this foundation, The Gavin Bryant Dietrich Foundation will be
Scholarship as of now will be for football players. We wanted to keep the focus there
because that was his sport. Not knowing how big it would get, keeping it manageable
for me to begin with. We’re originally from St. Bernard Parish and then I moved over to
Slidell about 11 years ago. So, the kids grew up kind of half and half, so the way we
chose to do it was to do a scholarship for St. Bernard Parish and St. Tammany to
involve both.
We are going to choose a panel of judges, and they will use what we are going to call
an 81-point scale. We have already devised how it’s going to be handled. We’re going
to have each child that applies for the scholarship write an essay to tell us something
that they feel they have done to give back that makes them feel like they did, give like
Gavin. We’re also going to have each child have recommendations letters sent in from
whoever would like to nominate them for the scholarship, teachers, family… Then we
will have the board of judges go through and do the scoring and we will go from there. I
hope we raise enough to give multiple. I’d love to have more kids than I can count.
Make their 81 points and get the scholarship, but we gotta start somewhere. Eventually,
what I would love to branch off to as well, I’m sure you’re familiar with the Powder Puff
football game.
The VIP Crew: Yes!
Lacie Dietrich: I would love what we would call The Powder Puff Scholarship, so we
would be able to include a scholarship for girls as well.
The VIP Crew: Unfortunately, you won’t be the last one to go through these unfortunate
circumstances. Gavin was only 21 years old, at the time of his demise. What would be
your message to anyone God forbid, who has to deal with this or something similar?
Lacie Dietrich: Rely on your support system. It’s very easy in these situations to not
want to be bothered, pull away, I’m bad for that. I’m always the strong one. In a situation
like this, it’s very hard to open up and tell other people, I need you. If it was not for my
family and friends, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it. And I say, gotten
through, I’m not even halfway through it at this point. The days are long and hard, but
you have to rely on your people. When they say, it takes a village, it’s not just to raise a
child. It takes a village to get through life. Thank you so much for helping me get the
word out about the foundation!
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