Penny and Stephen Gilfedder of Cornish know how to spoil their kids and they know how to discipline them, too. And both skills were used and needed last week to create a memorable story their family will soon learn to laugh about. Soon, but not yet.

The story goes like this. The Gilfedders, who moved from Standish to Cornish in late May had just bought their girl and three boys a new Yerf-Dog gas powered go-kart but because of persistent rains, the kids weren’t able to use the gift the day they received it. So, the go-kart sat in the garage, out of sight, but, apparently, not out of the mind of their youngest – eight-year-old Paul.

That night, independently minded and normally well-behaved Paul waited until his family fell asleep before embarking on a journey to end all journeys: a night-time trip on the new go-kart to his friend’s home in Standish, 20 miles in the distance.

So, young Paul went quietly into the garage, got an extra can of gas, and set out into the cold, wet night on his new Yerf-dog. His goal was to show off his new acquisition to his best friend who lived on Heritage Drive in Standish.

Paul knew the road from Cornish to Standish well, since he had observed the route to Standish almost daily from the passenger seat of the family car. But little did he know how hard that trip would be in a go-kart, with no headlights trying to keep to the side of the road.

Fortunately, Paul was found at 4:30 a.m. dazed and frightened by the side of Route 107 in Baldwin by a couple driving to the Whistlestop gas station/convenience store on Route 113. The boy had run out of gas 16 miles from home and was walking toward Standish when the couple noticed him on the side of the road with his bicycle helmet still on. The couple, who had first mistaken the boy for a deer, then brought him to the store and called the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, which responded and requested an ambulance to treat the boy whose body temperature was down to 94 degrees.

While the boy was warming up in the ambulance, a Sheriff’s deputy went to the Gilfedder’s home, woke the family at 5:30 a.m. and after a few minutes of disbelief drove the father to the Whistlestop to pick up his son.

“He was cold and tired and going into hypothermia. He was a long way from home and had walked four miles from where he left the go-kart. He wasn’t lost though, he knew where he was going, but he was exhausted and it’s lucky nothing worse happened,” father Steve said. “We’ll never forget it though.”

Young Paul’s daring-do has been noticed not just in local papers but in media outlets from San Diego all the way to Glasgow, Ireland. His parents don’t want to encourage the young boy’s exploits and have declined media interviews with the boy.

“He’s an intelligent kid. He knows there are articles in the paper and on TV, but he also knows what he did was bad,” the father said. “I think the experience was punishment enough. He was pretty terrified. So, we haven’t really disciplined him because he knows not to do that again. I’m sure we’ll laugh about it someday, but that day hasn’t come yet.”

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