COTTAGE GROVE - Gavin Thomas Wendricks, age 20, of Cottage Grove, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. He was born on July 20, 2003, in Madison, the son of Paul and Shannon (Caraher) Wendricks.

Gavin graduated from Monona Grove High School in 2021 where he participated in the Dane County Youth Apprenticeship program and graduated as a welder. From a young age, Gavin enjoyed working, especially if it was with his hands and outdoors. He was a champion for the skilled trades industry and was ambitious in his pursuit of the next trade or skill. After high school he worked as a welder and as a heavy equipment operator. Within the past year he achieved a long time goal of obtaining his commercial drivers license and became a grain hauler for ALCIVIA.

Gavin was dedicated to his community and was very involved in community service. He had a helpful heart and could often be found doing yard work or tasks for his grandparents and neighbors. He was a member of Boy Scout Troop 132 and achieved the rank of STAR. Gavin grew up watching his dad serve his community as a volunteer fire fighter and at a very young age expressed his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. He fulfilled his life long dream and officially joined the Cottage Grove Volunteer Fire Department in April of 2022. He had immense pride in being able to call himself a fire fighter. Gavin’s impact of service to others is still unmeasurable in his final wish to be an organ and tissue donor.

Gavin participated in many sports, however, his favorite was baseball. He cherished his many years with the GRB baseball program. He still referred to the best week of his life being the week he had the opportunity to play in the Cooperstown Dream Park National Tournament, where he was inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame. As a Scout, among the many campouts he participated in, some of the most memorable were attending the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia, paddling and fishing the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Ely, Minnesota, and backpacking the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico at the BSA Philmont High Adventure base alongside his father, extended family, and fellow Scouts.

Friends and family were extremely important to Gavin. He enjoyed attending his younger sister Brooklyn’s activities and thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of being her protector and will now be her guardian angel forever. Every year Gavin looked forward to family time in Connecticut & Wisconsin with the Caraher, Bares, Breitlow, and Wendricks families. Whether it was deer hunting at the family farm, participating with the Mad City Ski Team as a skier and a safety boat driver, Living the Lake Life, or hanging out with friends helping them build their trucks, participating in numerous power sports most notably snowmobiling, gathering at his grandparent’s backyard fire pit with friends, helping both grandfathers with their holiday trains, or other farm field fires with friends. Gavin was THE larger than life presence that made everyone around him enjoy themselves. No matter what place, be it firehouse, family event, shindig, or gathering of friends that Gavin entered, it was never quiet.

Gavin is survived by his parents, Paul and Shannon; sister, Brooklyn, family dog Stella; paternal grandparents, Nelson and Carol Wendricks; maternal grandfather, Tom Caraher; maternal grandmother, Linda (Frank) Bares; uncles, Mark (Rhonda) Wendricks, Brian (Kristi) Wendricks, Tom (Emma) Caraher, Ryan (Tara) Bares, Devon (Katherine) Bares; cousins, Darren, Danielle, and Dylan Wendricks, Taylor, Lilly and, Garret Wendricks, William and Charlotte Caraher, Tate Bares, Mick and Pippin Bares; Godmother, Sherri Fameree; best friend, and self-proclaimed twin, Kevin Nett; Members of the Cottage Grove Fire Department and the extended first responder community; as well as many other family members and close friends.

He was preceded in death by great-grandmother, Alice Wendricks; great-grandparents, Glenway & Leona Breitlow; Thomas & Mary Caraher; Robert & Bettye Evans; and cousin, Kristopher Wendricks.

A funeral service will be held at MESSIAH LUTHERAN CHURCH, 5202 Cottage Grove Road, Madison, at 3 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023, with Rev Jeff Vanden Heuvel presiding. Visitation will be held at GUNDERSON EAST FUNERAL AND CREMATION CARE, 5203 Monona Drive, Madison, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023, and also at the church from 1:30 p.m. until the time of the service on Monday. A luncheon will follow the funeral service on Monday at the Cottage Grove Fire Department, 4030 County Hwy. N, Cottage Grove.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Gavin Wendricks Memorial Fund online at https://gofund.me/a72d13ed. In addition donations may also be mailed or dropped off at any Bank of Sun Prairie location, including the Cottage Grove branch.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson East
Funeral & Cremation Care
5203 Monona Drive
(608) 221-5420

Gavin Thomas Wendricks

July 20, 2003 - October 28, 2023

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