‘We all aspire … to be that happy’

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This article was published 26/12/2015 (3552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gabriel (Dancing Gabe) Langlois will make his first-ever paid appearance at a sporting event on Sunday when he watches the Brandon Wheat Kings and Regina Pats at Westman Place.

The iconic 52-year-old Winnipegger, who is well known for busting his moves in the city at Blue Bombers, Jets, Goldeyes and Moose games, has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum.

It hasn’t stopped him from winning a Community Service Award in Winnipeg in October and becoming one of the most recognizable figures in the city. He was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013.

Ted Dzogan, the owner of Summus Security in Brandon, first saw Gabe at a sporting event in the late ’80s. He said the key to Gabe’s enduring popularity is the freedom with which he approaches his life.

“At our very happiest, we would love to get up and dance,” Dzogan said. “But we’re a little shy and we’re a little embarrassed and we have all of these little voices in our head that tell us that we can’t do that. But here’s a guy, forget the voices in his head, people shouted at him to stop for a long time and he just kept doing it.

“And we all aspire to that, to be that happy and that confident to say this is me, I’m going to do it because I enjoy it. I’m not hurting anyone, I’m having fun. And I would like you to have fun, too.”

Author Daniel Perron penned Gabe’s biography, “Dancing Gabe: One Step At A Time,” which was released in September. He grew close to the family during the 14 months he spent doing research and at the subsequent book signings.

He said the largely positive reception to Gabe is a reflection of the man himself.

“It’s positive just because of the way that Gabe is,” Perron said. “People have made that very clear to me along the way, Gabe has never asked for anything. He’s such a pure human being who asks for nothing and is just happy to be with people who are happy. He shares that happiness with all of them.”

Dzogan thinks part of the key to Gabe’s appeal is continuing on because the early reaction wasn’t entirely positive.

“I know that he has faced negative commentary, but I also know that he hasn’t let it stop him,” Dzogan said. “He has persevered. We are a thick-headed bunch so it takes a while for things to sink in, but realistically, 30 years, he’s earned his dues. He went out and he was Gabe. It was up to us to accept that.”

The story of Gabe’s celebrity is beyond unlikely.

Born in Winnipeg in 1963, Gabe had significant development disabilities and was diagnosed by doctors as mentally handicapped at age two.

He stayed at home until age six, when he set a fire that forced his family to seek help. He spent nearly three years in Portage la Prairie at what was then called the Manitoba School For Retardates, but is now the Manitoba Developmental Centre. After blossoming under the care of staff at the facility, he lived on a farm near Treherne for two years with a foster family until he returned to Winnipeg at age 11.

He has lived at home ever since. He’s currently joined there by his brother Gerry, his sister Claudette and her son Ryan. Claudette moved home to help out when their mother was ailing.

Gabe works part-time at Winnipeg’s south end YMCA, setting up toys and equipment for pre-school children and taking it down after they’re finished.

“His life is really fulfilling to him,” said his oldest brother, Mike Langlois, a former Western Hockey League referee from 1980 to 1988, who now lives in San Diego, Calif.

Gabe will be at Joe Beeverz in Brandon on Sunday with Perron from noon until 2:30 p.m., signing autographs and books. He will have a table near Hockey House at the Wheat Kings game, where he and Perron will be selling and signing books until the game starts. Gabe will be wearing a special jersey with the sponsors’ names on it, which will be swapped for a new Wheat Kings jersey at the media timeout midway through the first period.

Dancing Gabe will then do his thing for the rest of the game before heading back to Joe Beeverz for another session.

Dzogan was chatting with his co-workers at Summus in the spring about how he would love to bring Gabe to Brandon. Fortunately, he ran into Gabe, Perron and Mike Langlois at the Blue Bombers’ home opener as they sat at a table selling copies of the book and the process began.

After learning more about Gabe, Dzogan realized that rather than have him out to Brandon as a guest — something Gabe would have happily done — he would rather make it a paid appearance.

“He’s never asked for anything and his family has virtually never asked for anything,” Dzogan said. “I started to feel like if I just brought him to Brandon as my guest, I would be exploiting him. I just couldn’t do that. He has built a brand over the last 30 years that has real value.”

Dzogan began reaching out to other business owners to see if they would contribute to an appearance fee and the interest was immediate. Joe Beeverz, Chown Electric, Regent Custom Cresting, Accent Striping and Kelleher Ford are also pitching in.

Mike Langlois said the family was surprised.

“No one has ever offered to pay him an appearance fee,” Mike Langlois said. “I was kind of taken aback a little bit … That was a very nice gesture by him.”

If the day in Brandon is a success, Dancing Gabe may appear at some Manitoba Junior Hockey League rinks as well, Dzogan said. He is hoping they’re paid appearances as well.

“If I didn’t say that we need to pay him, he would have come and done all of this for free,” Dzogan said. “That’s just not OK with me.”

The question of who should be paying Gabe is a tricky one.

On one hand, it would be nice to see his trust fund growing as he appears at professional sporting events. But on the other, everyone close to Gabe is quick to credit the Winnipeg teams with their generosity.

For instance, the Jets quickly sold out the MTS Centre when they returned to Winnipeg, but still found a way to get Gabe in the door for every game.

Perron said the top brass of the Jets, Bombers and Goldeyes all made the same point during interviews for the book.

“People have been unequivocal in saying that Gabe has never asked for anything,” Perron said. “I don’t think that would ever change for him.”

Mike Langlois said that when the Winnipeg Goldeyes moved to Shaw Park, team owner and then-mayor Sam Katz individually instructed his security staff that Gabe was to be admitted to any event held there.

“When you get things like that, it shows you the uniqueness of Gabe’s situation,” Mike Langlois said.

If there’s a more hardcore sports fan in Winnipeg than Gabe, you would be hard-pressed to find him.

Mike Langlois chuckled telling a story about one of the radio stations holding sports trivia contests at a local bar in Winnipeg. Gabe, who has assembled 45 scrapbooks containing more than 3,000 pages that methodically detail Winnipeg sports history over the last three decades, cleaned up the first two times the contest was held.

On the third night, a downcast Gabe came home and told his mother that the staff had begged him to let other people win.

Perron doesn’t think that Winnipeg’s professional sports teams paying the sports lover for appearances is the way to go.

“I don’t think it would be the same,” Perron said. “For an organization to pay someone for doing what they do, it kind of becomes an employer-employee relationship.”

He thinks it would change Gabe if he had to fit into a game plan or marketing.

But there is the matter of his future.

Gabe is self-sufficient in many ways, but Perron said his mother remains his foundation and the person he looks to for approval. But she has faced health issues in recent years and is now in her 80s. His father Louis died in 1982.

Dzogan said it’s time for a discussion about how people such as Gabe are treated in these kinds of circumstances.

“We need to have a conversation about his care, but also, although we’ve come a long way as you can read in the book, in how people with autism are treated,” Dzogan said. “There’s still a long way to go. When I talk to people and tell them that he’s never been paid, that shocks a lot of people.

“That doesn’t mean that I think we need government legislation that forces this or forces that; I think what we really need is some quiet time to just reflect upon our own thoughts on that. The people who feel it should be different should step up and do something different about it.”

Gabe will see some money from Perron’s self-published book, which costs $25 including GST.

For every printed book sold, $1 each also goes to the Winnipeg Jets True North Foundation, the Winnipeg Goldeyes Field of Dreams Foundation and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ anti-bullying initiatives.

Perron and his family are also setting up a trust fund for Gabe’s care.

But Dzogan worries there could come a day when Gabe is forced to move to San Diego to be with his oldest brother Mike.

“The Jets, Bombers, Moose, everyone gave him media passes and that’s still progress and it’s good and it’s appreciated,” Dzogan said. “Those are positive things. But now as we’re moving forward, his future care is somewhat in doubt and it would be nice to know that there won’t be a moment when we lose Gabe.”

Perron said he’s not as concerned about Gabe’s future.

“His family has looked after him quite closely through his years since he has been back in Winnipeg,” Perron said. “His family will continue looking after him. I don’t think he has ever needed for anything. He’s got four brothers and a sister who are very close to him.”

Mike Langlois agrees.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem because my sister is there,” Mike Langlois said. “Routine and environment are very crucial. I dread the day when my mom passes because it’s going to be very, very tough on Gabe. Mom is the rock.”

Even if the family had a problem, Mike Langlois is convinced help would present itself.

“There will still be people, if we needed a hand concerning Gabe, who would come out of the woodwork,” Mike Langlois said. “He’s done this for so long without asking for anything and us as a family, that’s how we were brought up. You don’t ask. You work hard and you prove that you’re deserving. I think Gabe is a perfect reflection of that.”

He said he’s forever amazed by the support that Gabe actually gets from people all over the city of 663,000.

Perron adds that Gabe’s mother has done a terrific job impressing on him the need to avoid situations that could get him in trouble and to simply come home. And while Gabe famously takes public transit to all of the events he attends, and has his limitations, Perron said he’s fine.

“There are way more people out there who would come to his defence or help him out if he needed it,” Perron said. “I don’t worry about Gabe.”

Mike Langlois has a good example. He said one time Gabe came home in a police car, understandably worrying his mother, who was sitting in the living room. It turned out that the police officer recognized him while he was waiting at a bus stop on a cold day and gave him a ride home. Mike Langlois said his family has many similar stories of people who done things out of “sheer goodness.”

It was a story that Mike Langlois knew had to be told. He began looking for an author in 2005, finally settling on Perron because he sensed a lot of integrity in the Quebec native.

Perron, meanwhile, was searching for a new challenge after leaving the military and heard about the project through a mutual friend he shared with Mike Langlois.

As Perron began work on the project, he quickly discovered that it was a very different story than the one he expected.

“I thought the most exciting part would be about Gabe going to games and high-fiving people and interacting with the players at times, but I quickly realized that there was a lot more to the story,” Perron said. “It turns out that it’s a story about people and community and people helping people.”

Mike Langlois said that based on his family’s experience, that was a fundamental part of the story, and a key reason why the book had to be written.

“What I realized with what Gabe went through is that there are so many other parents of special needs kids, autistic and disabled and everything else,” Mike Langlois said. “If you look at the story, it’s about hope. People in the community came out and helped. That was the idea behind it; I really wanted to get his story out to send a message to parents of autistic kids that it’s not the end of the world.”

But even with a caring family, there were a number of people who emerged fortuitously at the exact moment they were needed to help Gabe on his path. Plus there were several instances when Gabe’s story could have become a tragic cautionary tale.

“There were so many opportunities along the way for this story to go astray real quick — but it never did, did it?” Perron said. “There was always someone there to help him out at the right time.”

Gabe and Perron have had 45 book signings in the last four months and Perron has done 23 media interviews. The reception to the book has been universally positive.

Mike Langlois said Gabe is a different man as a result.

“I think he’s changed,” Mike Langlois said. “With autistic people, they are a little bit closed in. It’s hard for them to interact. But I think Gabe has actually flourished. His social skills have really improved over the years. It seems they’re just getting better and better. With all of the book signings, I actually see that he’s come out of his shell in a sense. There are still limits; autism is a different animal where there are highs and lows.”

Mike Langlois was especially impressed when Gabe spoke when he received his civic award, saying that wouldn’t have happened a decade ago.

Even so, Mike Langlois said people have to be aware of the special needs demographic in society and as kind as they can be. He said acceptance goes a long way to someone with a disability.

A couple of summers ago, Mike and his family visited Winnipeg and took him up to the festival in Gimli. Mike’s wife has never experienced the extent of Gabe’s celebrity before, something she quickly recognized as they walked around and one person after another came up to share a high five with him.

“We’re just so fortunate that things happened the way they did in Gabe’s life,” Mike Langlois said. “It’s a really unique situation. He’s probably one of the one per cent where he has this type of exposure and celebrity. It’s not too often that you get people with special needs who become well recognized across Canada.”

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