[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 24, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       THE DEATH OF PETER GABARRO

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to a very courageous 
young man, Peter Gabarro, of Dover, NH. Pete died of brain cancer on 
Sunday, May 22, at the tender age of 12 years.
  I first learned about Pete last fall. A seventh grade student at 
Dover Junior High School, Pete was an outstanding all-star baseball 
pitcher in the Dover South Little League. In the midst of his Little 
League's all-star series last year, Pete passed out and was taken to a 
Boston hospital for tests. Tragically, he was diagnosed with an 
inoperable brain tumor.
  Moved by Pete's plight, many kind and generous people rose to the 
occasion and made this brave young man's last months of life a time of 
dreams fulfilled. Thanks to the generosity of the Mark-A-Wish 
Foundation, the Boston Red Sox, and a group of Toronto businessmen, 
Pete and his family received a free trip to Toronto to watch the first 
two games of the 1993 World Series.
  When I learned that the Blue Jays were Pete's favorite team, I 
contacted the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and asked whether 
the Blue Jays might give brave young Pete some fitting memento. The 
Commissioner's Office and the Blue Jays responded immediately by 
sending along a baseball autographed by the entire 1993 World 
Championship Toronto Blue Jays team. The look on Pete's face when he 
held that baseball said it all.
  As the 1994 baseball season began in Dover on April 30, the very 
popular Pete Gabarro was honored during opening day ceremonies. His 
uniform--No. 14--was retired and he received numerous gifts from his 
many friends and admirers. Dover Mayor Pro-Team Renny Perry declared 
April 30 ``Peter Gabarro Day.'' ``I was surprised,'' Pete said modestly 
from his wheelchair after the ceremony. ``I didn't really expect it.''
  Mr. President, Pete Gabarro was a first-rate baseball player. He got 
off to a stellar start in his last season by pitching a no-hitter and 
striking out 14 batters in his team's first game of the year. One of 
his coaches, Paul Vatcher, called him awesome. ``It made you just kind 
of shake your head,'' his coach commented. ``You could see the 
potential.''
  With his great physical talent and his determined mental attitude, 
Pete Gabarro might well have become a star pitcher for his beloved 
Toronto Blue Jays some day. But we remember Pete not for what might 
have been, but for what he was. His Little League's president, Dave 
Amari, said it best. ``We've lost one of our family at South Side,'' 
Mr. Amari said. ``He was a terrific kid. He was a happy-go-lucky kid. 
He was very popular, he had lots of friends. He always had a smile on 
his face. He was,'' Mr. Amari concluded, ``just a good kid.''
  Mr President, the Mass of Christian Burial is being celebrated for 
Pete Gabarro tomorrow morning in Dover, NH. As the father of a Little 
Leaguer just about young Pete's age, my heart goes out to Pete's dad 
and mom, Ralph and Dorothy Ann Gabarro, and to his two brothers, Seth 
and Anthony. I pray that they will find comfort in the fact that Pete's 
friends loved him so much and the he touched so many lives with his 
tenacity and his bravery.
  Being the fine young baseball player that he was, Pete Gabarro never 
gave up. He pitched the last great game of his life in his courageous 
battle against cancer. And when the end came, triumphantly, he jogged 
happily from the mound, off the field, and straight into the arms of 
his loving Lord. Then, like a blue jay, he flew to heaven and took his 
place among the other angels. I can think of no better tribute to this 
special boy than this beautiful quotation of William Shakespeare, from 
``Romeo and Juliet'':

     When he shall die,
     Take him and cut him out in little stars,
     And he will make the face of heaven so fine
     That all the world will be in love with night,
     And pay no worship to the garish sun.

  Mr. President, Pete Gabarro will always be in my Hall of Fame. I am 
proud to be his Senator.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am not sure the Record can reflect, which 
it will not, the emotion that was given in the rendition of this speech 
by the Senator from New Hampshire.
  I hope that the people of New Hampshire, whoever reads this in the 
Record and whoever watched it, will understand that we talk a lot on 
the Senate floor about legislative issues; we raise our voices and 
become impassioned in what we talk about. But I have been here 8 years 
and rarely have I heard anyone make a statement with the emotional 
content of my friend from New Hampshire.
  Mr. SMITH. I appreciate very much the remarks of the Senator from 
Nevada. I know he is a baseball fan and a father, as well. I know he 
understands and appreciates this.
  Mr. REID. I had a very close personal friend--we were raised 
together, he and his family. We were neighbors when we were boys. We 
talked often about his little boy in a Little League baseball game. 
This is a big, rough family--always very physical. And he was upset 
because his boy hit a home run and he was so slow coming from third 
base, and he was upset at his son and told him so. What he did not know 
is this little boy had leukemia. There being, of course, no cure for 
it, he died very quickly. So any time I hear a story like this I think 
of my friend Don.
  Mr. SMITH. I wonder if I can add one final point.
  You hear so many negative things about professional athletes 
sometimes, and baseball: In it for the money and all that. But when I 
made the request of the Toronto Blue Jays regarding the baseball, it 
was just a matter of days and the ball was there. And one of my staff 
people, Carol St Clair, who used to teach at Dover Junior High School, 
presented young Peter the ball.
  He was so proud because he could display that baseball to his 
classmates. I know he was the envy of many of his classmates in school 
as he proudly displayed that baseball to the other kids.
  He was a great kid. He was an inspiration to a lot of people and he 
will be for a long, long time.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we hear so many negative things, especially 
as the Senator from New Hampshire indicated, about stars. I had, 
yesterday, a 10-year-old girl come to visit me who had AIDS. She had 
been to see me a couple of years before--a tiny little girl who has the 
HIV virus.
  She sings in Las Vegas. She has sung with Billy Ray Cyrus and 
Engelbert Humperdinck. Anyway, after she finished singing with Billy 
Ray Cyrus he asked this girl, ``Is there anything that you need?''
  And the little girl said, ``No, no, I have everything I need.'' She 
said, ``My mother needs a car to haul us around, the kids, around, but 
I have everything I need.''
  He did not say a word. A week later a brand new minivan was delivered 
to her house.
  Now Billy Ray Cyrus did not issue a press release. There has never 
been anything said about that. But these people, like the rest of us, 
are made up of good ones and bad ones, and a lot more good ones than 
bad ones, I am sure.

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