Monday, June 29, 2009

What tugs at our heartstrings

Sharing something that just tugs at my heartstrings… when a severely impaired child disembarks -- after having an educational adventure so inspiring that the child forgets all about impairments for a couple of hours and becomes a happy kid interacting with the critters of the sea -- gets about halfway up the ramp to the marina gate, turns back, ambles quickly back down to the SOFTIN crew, wraps arms around us and says, “Thank you. I had fun and I want to go again.”

The SOFTIN crew has been deeply touched by many such emotional displays of honest and unrestrained feelings. After wards, we share a good cry together and thank heavens for being able to do such wonderful good work.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTINwww.softininc.org

Friday, June 26, 2009

Car show page added to SOFTIN's website

SOFTIN's website has been updated to include a special page for our car show and silent auction fundraiser, scheduled for July 25th at Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara. The page URL is: http://www.softininc.org/SOFTIN/Fundraising_Event.html

You are encouraged to visit our website and also attend our fun fundraiser.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN, Inc.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Paypal donations now enabled!


Paypal donations are now enabled. Please help us keep Softin a reality for those in need!



Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Paypal installed to facilitate online donations

We just completed installation of a Paypal account to make it easier for helpful folks to donate to SOFTIN. The username needed for donating is: dbacon@softininc.org

Your donations make life enriching experiences available for special needs people.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN, Inc.
www.softininc.org

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Letter of support for SOFTIN from C.A.L.M.

Letter of Recommendation for SOFTIN

Of all the special-needs people SOFTIN serves, perhaps the most complex are victims of abuse and troubled families in need of direction. In an earlier blog entry, I listed some of our collaborating partners. One is Child Abuse Listening & Mediation (CALM). These good folks provide highly specialized services to traumatized children who have suffered from abuse and neglect and to families in need of help to regroup and move forward in a positive and nurturing manner. SOFTIN is proud to help CALM provide meaningful experiences and opportunities for growth to the people we serve collaboratively.

Below is a letter of recommendation and support for SOFTIN, written recently by the Executive Director of CALM.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 4, 2009

To whom it may concern:

In the course of our work here at CALM we work with children that have been neglected, exposed to violence and abused. Often they have few areas in which they feel competent. I can’t express what a joy it has been to witness the changes that occur in children when they are given the opportunity to have hands-on learning and fun such as that provided by SOFTIN. The at-sea experiences have been a once in a life time adventure for the children and families that we serve. It has been so beneficial because our mission is to prevent child abuse; providing parenting education and promoting positive experiences among family members. After one of our families went on one of Captain Dave’s trips she wrote that it was the best experience that their family ever had together.

We will certainly continue our ongoing collaborative relationship and it is with pleasure that I lend CALM’s support to SOFTIN.

Sincerely

Cecilia Rodriguez MFT
Executive Director
CALM
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN, Inc.
http://www.softininc.org/

PS: We reach out for people to serve, through networks of good people. Do you know of a special-needs child? Do you know of an organization who serves special-needs people? Please send them our way.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Interaction among special-needs kids

SOFTIN’s crew of experienced at-sea educators uses every observational tactic available to assess the effectiveness of an educational adventure on each and every passenger as we work through our curriculum. We’ve learned some really useful techniques and tactics.

One valuable assessment tool is observing interaction between children. Here is what we’ve learned and the approach we’ve developed… special-needs kids typically have an emotional shell they have carefully built up. We recognize it when they come aboard withdrawn, quiet and with little eye-contact. These kids often remain in this mode while we cruise the harbor and give informative talks about the various vessels, structures, points of interest and how the waterfront functions as a community. This works out very well because they quietly soak up all of this information, as evidenced by how they recite some of what they have learned as we cruise back into the harbor at the end of the trip.

Once we begin introducing them to the critters of the sea, things change rapidly. These critters… seals, sea lions, dolphins, cormorants, loons, seagulls and pelicans (including our greatest friend, Bentwing the disabled brown pelican) help us break through the emotional shells. When the youngsters begin interacting with the critters (making sea lion sounds, cheering the dolphins, feeding the birds and other fun stuff), the truly magic moment occurs. They come busting out of their shells and become emotionally normal; happy, fully-engaged, laughing, sharing with the other kids.

This is one of the key things we watch for… how well the kids interact with one another. We’ve learned that once the kids share and play, they are having an exceptionally rare (for them) opportunity to forget their issues. We call it, “living large outside the shell”. Caregivers accompanying the children recognize it to, and they visibly relax and celebrate.

The education and adventure our program provides is wonderfully beneficial, but the carefully-crafted opportunity to “live large outside the shell” is precious.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director
http://www.softininc.org/

Monday, June 15, 2009

The real story of SOFTIN is stories of people we serve

The real story of SOFTIN is about the changes we bring about in the special-needs people we serve. SOO many have tugged at my heartstrings, but here is a story that has played out similarly many times over, yet always subtly differently because people are all individuals.

Little Stella is an autistic child of six, who came aboard the WaveWalker on a SOFTIN trip, accompanied by her Mom. Stella was having a tough time developing a comfort level with the new experience. She came aboard timid, withdrawn with arms folded and making no eye contact with anyone. She was shaking her head, murmering to herself and periodically asking Mom to take her home. Mom held her, comforted her and quietly insisted she try this for a little while.

As the excursion began, the SOFTIN crew of Ramona Lisa and Capt. Tiffany talked with her and the other passengers about the different kind of boats in the harbor and what each kind of boat is used for. They played color games by pickiing out certain colors. Next they played shapes games. Then everyone picked out boat names they liked. We cruised the harbor and looked at Coast Guard vessels, Harbor Patrol boats, research vessels and others.

We pointed out the critters of the waterfront... harbor seals, night herons, seagulls, cormorants and pelicans. We told the story of Bentwing, the disabled (from birth) brown pelican who made his disability his strength, became a useful member of the waterfront community and likes himself just the way he is. We found Bentwing that day and Stella fed him a fish. Stella and Bentwing liked each other very much.

Next we visited California sea lions hauled out on a buoy outside the harbor. Stella yelled and waved at them and made sounds like they made. We tried a little fishing nearby and Stella caught her first fish. We taught her about it, how it lives and how important clean water is to that fish. Stella learned to thank the fish for the wiggle and let it go.

On the cruise back into the harbor. Stella was excited, animated and talked to everyone aboard about how much fun it was to catch a fish, to feed a pelican and to name all the seagulls.

Back at the dock, Mom expressed her amazement at Stella's progress in just a few hours. Mom appreciated our work so much that she volunteered to help SOFTIN any way she could. We can always use good help. As for Stella... she had a stellar day and didn't want to leave the boat because she had found something to love doing and had made an emotional connection with the critters of the sea. She hugged each of us and loudly proclaimed she wanted to go again. Mom had to pick her up and carry her to get her to leave. Watching them walk up the ramp to go home, with Stella waving at us, all of us were wiping tears from our own cheeks. How could we not?

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director
http://www.softininc.org/

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Collaborations to be proud of

We at SOFTIN are proud to have strong collaborations with organizations who bring us the special-needs people they serve. Working together we can do so much more with so much less resource... all to the benefit of the people we are here to serve.

Here are some of our collaborative parters:

Channel Islands YMCA: Noah's Anchorage for youth at risk

Channel Islands YMCA: Isla Vista Teen Center

Child Abuse Listening & Mediation (CALM)

Parents of Special Education

Challengers (a youth sports league for disabled and impaired kids)

Social Services of Kern County (bringing us Foster Kids)

Social Services of Santa Barbara County (soon to be bringing us Foster Kids)

We also collaborate with the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) to offer additional educational experiences to the people we serve. SBMM allows SOFTIN to give free Museum passes to our passengers.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN, Inc.

PS: We welcome collaborative relations. If you are involved with an organization providing services to special-needs people, let's discuss how we can work together.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

FUNdraiser - car show & silent auction 7-25-09

SOFTIN's first major fundraising and community awareness raising event is a car show and silent auction, Saturday, July 25th 10:00am to 4:00pm at the Earl Warren Showgrounds located at Las Positas and the 101 freeway in Santa Barbara (3400 Calle Real, Santa Barbara, Ca 93130 for you GPS navigators).

Please come for the fun and to support the work of SOFTIN to bring at-sea education and personal growth experiences to the special-needs community. 100% of the proceeds from the event will benefit our program for disabled, impaired, victims of abuse, elderly and youths-at-rick. Admission is $10 at the entrance. Parking is expected to be $3.

A great number of car clubs from the southwest are coming to support our cause and show their cars. All car and truck types will be on display. A special section (and trophies) for custom bicycles is planned as a special treat.

Speaking of treats, we will have a live band (Redfish) inside and a DJ outside. We'll have vendor booths filled with goodies and representing supporting businesses. We are gathering lots and lots of used books for a big book sale. The silent auction will be stocked with goodies ranging in value from a few bucks on up to thousands. SOFTIN loves kids and we plan to have fun things for the youngsters to do, so bring the whole family and enjoy the day while supporting SOFTIN.

When you get hungry, famous Woody's is the concessionaire at Earl Warren's Showgrounds and Woody's can fix you up with some good grub.

Our sponsors thus far are: Toyota of Santa Barbara and Redfish. We welcome additional sponsors. We have sponsorship packages of $500, $1,000, $2500 and $5,000. Please contact Capt. Tiffany Vague at tvague@softininc.org.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Here is how SOFTIN does our work

Here is how SOFTIN works. We do put together groups of special-needs individuals for our educational adventures, however we primarily collaborate with other nonprofits or government/educational agencies who serve the same special needs community... disabled, impaired, victims of abuse, frail elderly and youths-at-risk.

Those organizations or agencies choose from among the people they serve, based upon a needs analysis, rewards system, or whatever is best for them. They bring us 4 or 5 passengers plus 1 or 2 caregivers (for a maximum of 6, our legal limit). We provide our comprehensive curriculum on the water and then the organizatons take the passengers home.

Note that you can find our curriculum on our website, http://www.softininc.org/. Most trips run 2 to 2.5 hours, however we tailor our curriculum, including time, according to the needs of the specific group of passengers.

We operate out of Santa Barbara Harbor and we have expansion plans as funding allows. Also on our website you will find our contact info. Perhaps you have a family member who qualifies? Are you part of an organization serving the same people and would like to collaborate? Will you make a tax-deductible donation? All are welcome reasons to contact us. Or, to express your support (which you can do here as a comment).

Our needs are for special-needs people to serve and funding. We do the rest. SOFTIN's crew is made up of seagoing professionals with backgrounds in working with special-needs people, especially kids.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director

Introducing SOFTIN, Inc.

Seafaring Opportunities For Those In Need (SOFTIN), Inc., was started in August '07 to provide at-sea education, skill building and self esteem building experiences and adventures to those who need to most... disabled, impaired, victims of abuse, frail elderly and youths-at-risk. We have been providing our services since day 1. We receieved our 501c3 status July 1, '08.

We have a broad curriculum to teach as much as we can, but the underlying focus to establish an emotional connection with the critters of the sea. When that magic moment happens, these previously withdrawn and fearful kids bust out of their emotional shells and become excited, animated and happy-go-lucky kids for the rest of the trip. It is an astounding and joyful transformation.

Myself, along with my co-founders (Capt. Tiffany Vague, Ramona Lisa McFadyen and Debbi Bencomo), are known to frequently shed a tear over the profound work we do and the emotional expressions of gratitude from our special needs passengers. We are fortunate to have a Board of Directors fully engaged and helpful. That is a blessing.

Please visit our website at http://www.softininc.org/ and visit our Facebook page listed as Seafaring Opportunities For Those In Need.

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director

PS: We do not charge our special needs passengers. Our work is to benefit them.