Influence- Dave Kalama,Tom Jones, Cris Dobrosielski, & our Volunteers!

April has been an incredible month for our programs! We have received many encouraging emails from foster care agencies, foster parents,volunteers,and even strangers! Here is a quick snapshot of the last 30 days!

-April 4-9th Baja Mexico trip- Preparing our upcoming community center,cooking meals for local orphanages,planted a raised garden,surfing (of course!),and hosting a scuba diving class (Thanks to IB Divers http://www.ibdivers.com/)!

-April 21st San Diego Chapter held a surf camp in La Jolla! Almost 40 foster youth! We realized one of our goals set for 2012- Our first foster family from outside of California came to this event! (UrbanSurf4kids provided them 4 nights in a vacation condo with paddle board lessons & surf lessons!). Diego Rovira of the San Diego Sockers came out signed autographs and hung out for the entire day! Finally Cris Dobrosielski a master/pro fitness trainer gave an inspiring 10 minutes speech! His message “”Your story matters!” & “Focus must b on r choices frm This Moment Forward” really hit home.

-April 22nd Miami Chapter held a volunteer event with Ronald McDonald House. Foster youth making cookies & cupcakes for the children @ the R.M. House. How cool is that?

-April 28th Orange County Chapter held a paddle board event @ Newport Aquatic Center (Tough to find a better facility or group of people!). The volunteers spend the entire morning paddle boarding,kayaking,and how to fly in the outrigger canoes! However the highlight of this event was World Famous Big Wave Rider DAVE KALAMA taking out his time to speak with the kids! His message of having a healthy outlet to sustain you through good & bad was exactly what these foster youth needed to hear. He then took the time to sign an autograph to each one of the youth. http://www.newportaquaticcenter.com/

-April 28th San Diego Chapter partnered with Surfrider Foundation San Diego Chapter for a beach clean at Crown Point- Thanks to Roger Kube for taking a minute to talk to the group of foster kids (almost 30 of them attended!) about what Surfrider is all about! The day in San Diego was topped off by VIP invite to YouthJamz benefit concert- They arranged for a chance for all of the foster youth to meet the artist! Alexander Deleon of the band The Cab shared and Cassadee Pope shared a brief story of inspiration and overcoming obstacles! Exactly what these kids need! What really blew us away was Mat Musco aka Blackbear bought pizza for the kids! Class ACT! Thanks to all of the volunteers who served- Without question we have all helped to make an impact!

WHAT A MONTH! We want to take a minute and thank everyone who has helped! Which leads us to the word INFLUENCE! We may not dare to ride GIANT waves like Dave Kalama, or have the mental ability to push the limits like a Tom Jones, or the determination to train like Cris Dobrosielski. However, we all have the ability to influence and the youth we are working with are being impacted!
THANK YOU! http://www.tomjonesextreme.com/ http://www.davidkalama.com/ http://monumentalresults.com/

Influence “the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc.,”