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Mostly Cloudy JCC's Camp Friendship kids go surfing
While researching grants, Gayle Fremed, who is the director of special needs for the JCC of the Greater Five Towns and oversees the six-week summer program Camp Friendship for special needs children, came across the Surfers Way Learn to Surf program.
Surfer’s Ways is a non-profit organization designed to offer children with special needs the opportunity to experience the excitement and freedom of surfing. Based in Long Beach, it was founded by Elliot Zuckerman, who runs Surf2Live, a business that provides surfing lessons.
On July 18, Fremed, along with the 22 shadows or counselors took about 18 campers to surf at Riverside Boulevard beach in Long Beach. Before the children got on the surf boards they had to get accustomed this unfamiliar setting.
“They have to acclimate to the environment and get used to the sound of the waves,” said Fremed, who added that these high-functioning special needs children don’t have a sense of how their bodies interact with the environment.
During the 90- minute program, volunteer instructor’s from Surfer’s Way assisted the children to get acclimated, then got them on the surfboards and into the water. “Basically we are thrown on the board with the instructors,” said Zukerman, who has been teaching surfing for 35 years. “We empower these kids and get them to do something I do every day in my life.”
Camp Friendship accommodates these children who go to school for 10 months of the year with a variety of activities that also includes swimming at North Woodmere County Park and this year swim lessons, outdoor play, art, music, movies and if it rains bowling or an appropriate movie.
“The camp provides the children with activities and places to go, and parents can go to work and have some respite,” said Fremed, about the six-year-old camp she has been involved with for the past two.
Passionate about surfing and feeling blessed with three children and six grandkids, Zuckerman believes that his Surfer’s Way program brings joy to the children while it allows him to pay it forward. “We make a child feel happy for a little while and I am giving back to a sport I love.”
