Surf’s Up

September 25, 2013 photog blogs

I’ve been sitting on this particular summer post for a while and I really want to share it.

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I worked on this story back in July.  A group that takes low income and disabled kids out to the beach and teaches them how to surf.

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Some of these kids had never even seen the ocean for themselves.  Can you believe that?  We’re not talking about living in the mid-West where there aren’t any oceans around.

These kids live probably within a fifteen or twenty minute drive to the beach, but had never been there.

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When you realize how deep that goes as it speaks to their quality of life, then you might begin to understand how important it is that people should help each other.

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There are a lot of people who don’t even know what they don’t know about the world.

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Something simple.  Seeing the ocean.  Being given the opportunity to try a thing different or outside of the experiences they have access to on their own.

Experiences just might make a difference in a life.

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We shot the story and for a little while that day, I felt like something I did mattered.  Even if it was just doing my part to shine a light on the example being set by a charitable group.

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I know what I do most days, but it’s still good that the news isn’t always about death and destruction.

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(Although I do believe we need to know about the bad things that happen in the world around us.)

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It’s good to know that people who care enough to share their time are out there. Even when the cameras are somewhere else.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that this story ran the day after we shot it.  Instead of going live, we got pulled off to follow up on another story.  Something about a celebrity who had been arrested, the results of their drunken behavior.

We do what we do, but I’d have just as soon stayed at the beach and watched the kids surf.  You know?