July 14, 2013 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Heather Smith was terrified at the thought of taking her daughter, Jacqueline, surfing, but the family loved water sports and wished she could join in.
Jacqueline has cerebral palsy. Now, three years after her first surfing experience, at age 6, she enjoys water sports and is a volunteer at the Best Day Foundation, signing up other children and encouraging them to take part in the many adventurous athletic activities the organization offers.
The nonprofit, which operates in four places—three in California and one in New Jersey—serves more than 1,000 children a year, all of whom are either mentally or physically disabled. Youngsters, helped by volunteers, race down snow-covered hills, paddle in kayaks, and practice outrigger canoeing.
Heather Smith says she was willing to let her daughter participate because she was impressed with the careful preparation of the volunteers. And when her daughter fell off the board, volunteers were there to prop her up.
“Before I could blink, they’d gotten her out of the water and were high-fiving her, saying, ‘Now you’re a real surfer,’” says Ms. Smith. “If I’d wiped out with my child, it would have been all over.”
Ms. Smith says that experience and other Best Day outings gave Jacqueline a love of the ocean and greater confidence: “For a lot of these kids, that’s the only time they’ll be in the water; their parents can’t do it on their own.”
Brooks Lambert, a small-business owner, and Max Montgomery, a software designer, founded the charity in 2008 after volunteering at Ride a Wave, a nonprofit that organizes daylong surfing events for disabled youngsters. They wanted to give such children a broader range of outdoor experiences. The two men spent nearly two years working full time to get Best Day started, and each contributed about $7,500 to the effort.
Today the charity, which relies on grants, volunteers, and donations of equipment, has an annual budget of roughly $300,000.
Best Day holds about 20 events a year, each with 100 to 130 volunteers. Volunteers show up at 7:30 a.m. to help set up the equipment, get briefed about what disabilities that day’s participants have, meet the lifeguards and other safety personnel, and learn what to do in case of trouble.
“To me, the big thing about what we do is providing opportunities for volunteers to be able to do something bigger than their day-to-day and connect with the special-needs community,” says Mr. Lambert. “It’s so much more than just a day at the beach.”
