Community celebrates late Southern High School student
Gavin Payne remembered for his giving spirit
Gavin Payne was a giver.
Once he graduated from Southern High School, he wanted to join the Army and give back to his country.
When his mother, Lisa Campbell-Payne, was caring for his younger siblings, he offered to give her a break and take over so she could get some rest.
When he went to Heritage Baptist Church, he gave his time volunteering in a food pantry that gives to the hungry in Annapolis.
Payne, 16, died Sept. 29 from injuries sustained as a passenger in a single-vehicle car crash on Sept. 20 that injured three others.
The driver, a 17-year-old boy of Bowie, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Another passenger, a 17-year-old of Churchton, also suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Both were transported to the hospital by ambulance. Payne, along with a 15-year-old from Lothian, had suffered life-threatening injuries.
Though Payne is gone, the giving hasn’t stopped.
Wednesday was the first-ever ThanksGavin. In Payne’s honor, people packed The Greene Turtle in Annapolis with cheer and grocery bag after bag of canned, boxed and bottled goods for Light House, a homelessness prevention center. The bar and restaurant donated 20% of sales from that evening — the notoriously busy Thanksgiving-Eve — to benefit Payne’s family. Donations were also collected.
His mother said he would offer to
comfort his younger siblings when she needed to rest or was feeling sick.
“He would offer to sleep in the room with the crib, so I could sleep in the other room and sleep through the night,” she said. “That was the biggest deal for me at the time.
“If I was having a bad day, he would make me a coffee and say, ‘Go sit down for five minutes,’ ” she said.
He went to community dinners at church every Wednesday and was involved in a youth group at Heritage Baptist as well.
He loved cars, taking things apart and putting them back together, a passion he developed by following his father, Scott Payne, to work as a car mechanic and later a boat mechanic. The family went to Capitol
Raceway in Odenton together on Friday nights, his mother said.
Raoul Graves of Next Big Thing Productions organized the event, saying Payne’s parents are longtime friends.
Graves has produced other events to raise money and heal after community tragedy, including an event to raise money for the Capital Gazette Families Fund after a mass shooting in June 2018.
“Music’s what brings the community together,” Graves said.
Meredith Dunne, a vocalist for Mr. J who has been friends with Lisa Campbell-Payne since elementary school, helped coordinate the lineup, which included Rebel Soul, Mr. J, Danger Barbie, Signal 13 and DJ Folly.
Dunne said Thursday afternoon that the fundraiser was a success, and while final totals weren’t available Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of dollars were raised through a raffle and silent auction alone.
“The community showed up once again,” she said.