Friday, April 16, 2010

SOFTIN partners with CALM to give abused families a happy adventure


Last evening, SOFTIN along with our collaborative partner Child Abuse Listening & Mediation (CALM) and Capt. Jason Diamond the owner of the vessel, Stardust, provided a much-needed seagoing adventure for nearly forty battered/abused children and moms. These families live daily with abusive situations that seem like nightmares, so it gave us a powerful sense of accomplishment to give them an opportunity to learn, interact with nature and just have some good clean fun.

The kids’ faced lit up when they came aboard and spread out around the beautiful vessel. All the sights and sounds were new and exciting and the kids went into “learn and have fun” mode in a supervised environment, allowing the moms to relax and enjoy the outing themselves. SOFTIN staff and Board of Director members, CALM therapists and the crew of the Stardust went into teach mode, pointing out interesting things about the waterfront, the sea and the critters of the sea and sea shore.

The happy group saw seagulls, night herons, brown pelicans, cormorants, egrets, harbor seals and sea lions. While we were out the kids caught and released a good number of fish, allowing us to teach first-hand lessons about resource management, water quality management and marine debris prevention.

We cruised back into the harbor as the sun set. As the smiling kids and appreciative moms disembarked, thanking us profusely, we volunteers were left with a feeling that we really helped some kids gain experiences their lives were lacking and we gave the moms a shared experience they can talk with their kids about to help them through rough times ahead as they try to improve their lives. We helped and it felt great!

Capt. David Bacon
Executive Director,
SOFTIN
dbacon@softininc.org
www.softininc.org

PS: We at SOFTIN are always looking for more collaborative partners to team up with to serve special-needs people.