The ocean has always had a special place in my life from as far back as I can remember. Even as a young kid I remember playing in the waves at Huntington Beach, swimming and riding the waves for hours before falling asleep exhausted on the sand. From all along the southern California coast one can see the Island of Catalina, especially at dusk when it is silhouetted against the sunset making it seem like a far off mysterious land. Many memories were made taking the hour long ferry over to Avalon for a day or weekend of adventure. I think I have used just about every conventional method of transportation to get there and back including ferries, sail and power boats and even a helicopter once. The one thing I never have done nor ever dreamed of doing until recent years was swimming there! But now that’s about to change!
Starting at 11 pm on Sept 26th I’ll be swimming 20 miles from Catalina to Palos Verdes wearing a swimsuit, goggles and a latex swim cap. Even in light of all the recent publicity of sharks and face eating jellyfish, the real challenge will be the 50 year old body I’ll be pushing and pulling across the ocean that night and the next day!! I’ll start at night, as the water is the calmest, and I’ll swim from the Island back since the wind will normally be at my back in that direction. I’ve never swam anywhere close to 20 miles at one time but then I figure that a climber hasn’t climbed Mt. Everest until he or she does it either! I am interested in the physical challenge of this event and what it will take to complete the task that may take up to 18 hours of non stop swimming. I think the challenge will include an equal mix of physical endurance and enduring the elements, as well as a tremendous obstacle within my own head. Ocean swimming is a solitary sport. Even with the great crew and supporters who will be on board the boat, it is still a feeling of being a little twig in a giant beautiful sea of water.
During the swim itself I will be dreaming of many things. One of them is a family that I have come to know and care for deeply. They are the kids of Irene Morales and they live in a small portable home that we built for them along the railroad tracks outside of Tecate, Mexico. Irene’s kids range in age from 2 yrs old to 17. They have never been to school, as they didn’t have the necessary paperwork. Their father has been in and out of the picture; most recently back long enough to have Irene pregnant with the 7th child, and she is due about the same time as my swim. His beast is drug use and it seems the beast is winning, leaving the kids without a father or money to buy life’s necessities, correct birth certificates, or uniforms and registrations needed for school. The Club Dust gang has been great in loving the kids and their mom. Erick Rojas, the son of a local pastor there, has helped us to start the process of getting the kid’s registrations and has helped to coordinate food and donated clothes for this and many other families in the area. Together we are studying how to introduce Microfinance to the area to encourage families to find ways to earn income to provide for themselves. I have realized, though, that school is absolutely necessary for these kids, and is their only chance of ever breaking the chain of poverty.
To this point I am dedicating my swim and my hours of thought and prayer to making a difference to these kids and many others like them there in the El Nino valley. My goal is to raise $10,000 for a school fund to be administered by Club Dust and Erick’s local church there in El Nino. It will be used to enable kids to go to school who otherwise would not have the opportunity. It will help with Irene’s delivery; enabling her to have the baby in a hospital instead of the floor of her little home. The story of the kids will be easy to see through the pictures shown on the Club Dust website (http://www.clubdust.org/). The website will have pictures of the birthday party we are having for the oldest girl on Sept 11th. Angela has never had a bike and probably not much of a party in the past. This one will make up for all the parties she missed up until now!
To pledge support for the fund and for this family living just 80 miles south of my home in San Clemente you can follow either of the options below. The donations are all tax deductible through Club Dust and I promise you two things if you do. I will be grateful and aware of your support as I dog paddle my way home from Catalina and also that the money will be used wisely with no overhead costs or monkey business. In fact I invite you to join us for a future one day trip to Mexico to build small but decent homes for other families living there along the tracks. Details for Club Dust are on the website and details of my swim as I make my way through the night will be available on my Facebook.
Thanks for your patience and friendship through our lives to date. Our time together has made this challenge one that I look forward to with a wild mixture of adventure and anxiety. I trust that will translate into energy and excitement when I take my first strokes that night! And Thank you for supporting this adventure however you choose to do so. I hope it somehow motivates others to try things that they think are too challenging for them to accomplish. When you live at the edge of possible failure with the faith that it can be done, you are surely living life to the fullest!
And now I ask you to take on your challenge and support Club Dust!
