The Haysville Times
By Angie Gumm
Sometimes bad things happen, even when you “do the right thing” and follow all the rules.
Austin Tyler Gains, a 2003 Campus graduate, was doing the right thing and following the rules last Saturday evening when he and a group of friends were riding their motorcycles on Zoo Blvd., just north of the zoo near Hoover Rd.
Although he was the only one of his group wearing a helmet, Gains was the one who was thrown off of his motorcycle, who subsequently struck a fence post, and the one who died.
“It seems unfair that someone was trying to do the right thing and this happened,” said Austins mother Pam Frieden.
“Life was just looking up for him,” she said.
In December, Austin returned home from Houston, where he had spent a year getting the second half of his two-year degree in automotive technology from the Universal Technical Institute (UTI). A month later he got a job as automotive technician at the west side Schofield Honda in Wichita.
“He loved automotive and shop-anything but the book work. I dont think he would have completed high school if it werent for those classes,” said Frieden, with a gentle laugh.
According to Matt Caton, a manager at Schofield Honda, his 20-year-old employee had found his niche.
“Everybody enjoyed working with him,” said Caton. “He was a hard worker. He liked being here and learning new things. We will definitely miss him.”
The Kmart on 47th and Broadway had employed Austin for three years while he was in high school, and his old co-workers were shocked and saddened by his sudden death.
“He was well-liked here. Everyone [at the store] is devastated,” said one former colleague.
Paola Rojas graduated from Campus with Austin and worked with him at Kmart before he went to UTI.
“He was a hard worker; he never called in sick,” said Rojas. “He was very friendly. He had a lot of friends.”
Besides his friends, Austin has left behind a family who loved him, including four nieces and nephews, who liked to spend time with their uncle.
The shy young man, who spent most of his life in Haysville, going to Rex Elementary and the Haysville Middle School, also left behind his loves of working on his own car, riding his motorcycle, skateboarding and snowboarding.
“Everything he did he wanted to do right,” said Frieden. “He was a good-hearted boy. He was quiet but he really had a big heart.”