For many of us, we take a simple day at the beach for granted.  What seems typical to many  – to truly feel the calming power of the sea, bask in the warmth of the sand and splash along the water’s edge – has become a luxury to the families and participants of the Wrightsville Beach Surfers Healing Camp who must face the difficulties that come with supporting a son, daughter, brother or sister with autism.  Each August, the Surfers Healing Teams from California and Wrightsville Beach, armed with an arsenal of local sponsors and volunteers,  turn a couple blocks of the Beach oceanfront into a perfect beach day for well over 200 children and their families – complete with the opportunity to ride the waves with professional surfers from the US, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

 

For nearly a decade, these day camps have provided a venue for families to have an experience like no other.  The morning kicks off with a huge unity circle follwed by instruction, blessings, and thanks to all our volunteers. Families begin to arrive and children have a chance to relax along the shoreline with therapeutic activities to keep them occupied.  Parents mill around informational tables to get the latest autism related information such as autism referendums as well as a host of other autism related resources.  All of this leads up to the big event – the child’s chance to spread his or her wings and fly on the waves with the professional surfers of Surfers Healing.

Surfers Healing Foundation is a California based organization that hosts completely complementary surf camps for children with autism all over the country.  Our local community (which includes central and eastern NC), rallies together to help give these families their perfect day at the beach.  This occasion has been rated by locals as one of the most touching and inspirational events they have ever experienced.

 It  truley could not be done without the “sea of support” we receive from the community, business partners and all of our sponsors. Everything donated even down to a case of bottled water has a huge impact and is greatly appreciated. This event is proud of its grass roots – yet needs to grow, sadly, because of the demand and the need.  Surfers Healing is a not-for-profit organization so any of your donations are tax-deductible.  Please go to surfershealing.org for more information regarding the Foundation.  

 

Surfers Healing, a Foundadtion for Autism is an internationally recognized program that offers autistic children the life-changing experience of surfing. Thank  you for participating in our efforts to educate people about this disorder that affects so many families.  All of the donations raised will go directly to the Wrightsville Beach Surfers Healing chapter to support forthcoming surf camps for autistic children.

 

Surfers Healing's mission is to enrich the lives of people living with autism by exposing them to the unique experience of surfing.   Though they serve thousands, that mission exists because of one child. Israel and Danielle Paskowitz founded Surfers Healing because of their son, Isaiah. Isaiah has autism, and when he struggled with meltdowns and sensory overload, riding the waves with his father calmed him like nothing else.   Not everyone has a championship surfer for a Dad (bummer!), so the Paskowitz family invited others to join them at the beach. Their idea caught on, and now we're a nationwide, grassroots non-profit organization. We're the original surf camp for children with autism, and we offer all our events free of charge.   Yet even though we had 4,500+ participants at our surf camps last year – and even though autism now affects 1 in 68 US children – we don't think in thousands. We think in ones, because that's where we can effect change. One child. One family. One day at the beach.