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About MADD San Bernardino
MADD San Bernardino came to be just like every other chapter across the nation. Because of a mother that had lost a loved one due to someone's poor decision to drink and then drive.
In 1978 Virginia Gautier's 26-year-old brother was killed by a wrong way drunk driver.
The drunk driver was also killed so her family never went to court. Then in 1983 once again tragedy hit Virginia and her family, a two time repeat offender decided to not only drink but snort cocaine. Virginia's 18 year old son, Val, was coming home from a friends house, had just started to cross on his bicycle through a four way stop, when the impaired driver drove right pass the stop sign hit Val and kept on going. At impact Val was brain dead. A witness followed the driver and call the police. Patrick J Donnelly was arrested and brought before the Judge where he plead guilty. This two time repeat offender was sentenced to one year in the county jail, but only served 110 days.
This was very upsetting and like so many victims families there were the questions. Why our family? What did we do wrong? Virginia ended up in therapy, while in therapy she was asked if she knew about Mothers Against Drunk Driving. MADD was a very young organization in 1984, and no, she did not know about MADD. Virginia was given a name of a CHP officer that was very interested in starting a MADD Chapter in the County of San Bernardino. CHP officer Rueben Rios help start MADD San Bernardino along with LoVae Pray Martines, who had been hit by a drunk driver, but survived.
MADD San Bernardino was started in late 1984 and became chartered on February 14, 1986. This date would have been Val's 21 st birthday.
Virginia, Rueben and LoVae worked very hard trying to break ground and educating the public about MADD. We also were trying to make as many contacts as we could with not only Law Enforcement, but also the District Attorney's office and the courthouse. It was an up hill battled but we did it.
Then in October 1997 once again there was a great tragedy in our Chapter. CHP officer Rueben Rios was hit and killed by a three time repeat offender.
This tragedy slowed us down for a while, but then we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and dug in to make MADD San Bernardino even stronger.
MADD San Bernardino is very close to all Law Enforcement agencies in the county, they have an open door policy with the DA's office and a lot of support from the communities in the county.
This year, February 14 th 2006, MADD San Bernardino celebrated its 20 th Anniversary. And it all came to be because of one distraught mother.
MADD is a grassroots organization with approximately 600 chapters and 2 million members and supporters nationwide. MADD's mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. MADD/s vision is to reflect the face of America and actively achieve its mission among all races and ethnic communities. | 
