This evening the team was humbled to receive a visit by Tom and Gwen Geeling, parents of Joe Geeling, the 11 year old schoolboy who was the tragic victim of a murder in Bury last March, 2006.
Along with Tom and Gwen, came James their youngest son and brother of Joe, along with Margaret Lynch, Joes Grandmother. All four were present to see the Dedication Plaque we now have in our Ladybridge Hall base/HQ, to the everlasting memory of young Joe.
Tom Geeling, Louise Jorgenson, Margaret Lynch, James Geeling, Gwen Geeling, Dave Marsh, Neil Ramsbottom & Search Dog Chi.
In August 2006, Tom, Gwen and their immediate family donated the considerable sum of £2,000.00 to the team, which the team utilised to purchase 51 pairs of overalls for our team members. (see #article#1524#News article dated 7th February 2007#)
This evening Joes Mum, Dad, brother and Grandmother all presided over the official handover of these garments to the team. All four spent the full evening chatting to team members who had been present on the all night and early morning search for Joe, including our Search Dog Chi (still recovering from his terrible leg injury) and his handler, now retired team member Dave Marsh.
Tom Geeling presents Garry with the overalls
Towards the end of the evening, Joes brother, young James, was presented with a Team Baseball cap, team badges and a team window sticker. (Thats after he’d finished off eating all our chocolate biscuits and three cans of soft drinks from our Call Out food box – only joking Mum and Dad !)
James is shown the inside of one of our Landrover Ambulances.
We bade farewell to the Geeling family late into the evening, feeling very grateful for their support of the team, and very humbled by their kind comments and gratitude for everything we did in the search for their son Joe, which had such a tragic outcome.
Please also refer to the following articles on our website:
- #article#1237#Incident 30/2006#
- #article#1239#Incident 31/2006#
- #article#1265#Joe’s funeral, 31st March 2006#
- #article#1389#Donation from Mr. and Mrs. Geeling, 31st August 2006.#
- #article#1524#Purchase of new coveralls 7th February 2007.#
- #article#1599#Dedication Plaques 15th April 2007.#
