The Early Years

Matthew James Gavenda (1980-present)

Matt was born the first child on June 23 to James and Karin Gavenda in the city of Dayton, Ohio. He was the only child for only one and a half years at which time Aaron was born. As all of the Gavenda children did, Matt learned how to read at a very young age because of a special emphasis put on literacy by James and Karin. It was not long before James began to instill into Matt the importance of sports in the culture that we live in. Baseball was especially emphasized in our younger years. In particular, the merits of the New York Yankees were talked of.

Lest I forget, we were brought up going to church as soon as physically possible every single week no matter what to every service possible. More often than not, Matt and I would use this opportunity to run around and explore the unused parts of the church while our parents attempted to talk to the other attendees of the service. Early on we learned how to play catch with the baseball and the football and even some basketball. We went to Christian schools for the majority of our childhood. As long as he was in elementary school, Matt was a great student inasmuch his grades were very high. By this time, we had moved five or six times, but had ended up in Northwestern Indiana attending a school called Heritage Christian School. Up to this point, we had somehow been sheltered enough to where our only piece of culture was the Baptist life of belief and action insomuch as we had hardly heard music that had a beat to it. We had not been overexposed to pop culture like so many of our peers although we did see our share of tv shows designed for younger audiences such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.

to be continued...

~as described and perpetrated by Aaron Gavenda~