Over 35-thousand dollars has been raised so far through a Go Fund Me Page to assist the family of Travis Galbraith, a Prince George man who passed away during a rafting accident over the May long weekend.
The organizer of the page is longtime friend Dave Mothus.
His connection to Travis and his family goes back quite a while.
“I’ve known Travis since he was a young man when I had my DJ service back in the day – he did all my security for me and that is when Prince George was the wild, wild, west. I needed somebody who had the gumption to pull people out and Travis was that guy and he was a big part of mine and many of my friends lives.”
On Wednesday, the Prince George RCMP and local Search and Rescue concluded their search for Galbraith who was reported overdue by family on Monday.
Police officers, the RCMP Helicopter Air 3, and 18 Search and Rescue volunteers spent over 150 person-hours looking along the Willow River where the man had launched from.
Galbraith was located deceased at approximately 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Mothus and a few of his friends banded together to raise money for Travis’s wife Sharon and their two sons and are blown away by the public support.
“That’s the thing, we never know the impact people have had outside of our own circle and it’s quite evident Travis had a far larger impact than even I knew as I was his friend for over 25 years.”
“How the heck do you know what someone needs when someone passes away? You don’t and it’s hard to know what is going to be enough (money raised) – we blew past our fundraising goal in less than 24 hours. Is that enough? No, but it will certainly help over the next six months making it a lot easier for Sharon and her two sons.”
“Gabe is just graduating and that is really hard. He is going to be graduating in a couple of weeks without his dad.”
The 43-year-old was also an MMA fighter who had a career record of 18-7-0. His last fight was on May 29th, 2010.
Nicknamed “The Gladiator”, Galbraith owned and was the head instructor at Galbraith Jiu Jitsu based at the Northern Capital Judo Club.
“He spent the last ten years of his life trying to change the direction of other people’s lives and that is something that is respected and he was doing construction. Another thing about Travis is that he loved spending money on the outdoor lifestyle.”
He leaves behind his wife Sharon and two sons.
The investigation has been turned over to the BC Coroners Service.
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