When we started the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation (“JMMF”) over seven years ago, we worked with abused children. Children from shelters. Children who had been beaten up emotionally, physically and psychologically. In a very real sense, these kids had been living in a war zone all of their young lives. Although they lived just a few miles from the ocean, many had never seen it before. We introduced them to the ocean, to fun, to ocean therapy. We showed them a world very different from their own personal war zones — a world of hope and healing. Reports came back quickly from their counselors and from letters and notes in their own words — ocean therapy was helping them win the war.
After two years of helping abused kids one of our board members suggested we apply the lessons learned from working with kids to the wounded warriors of our military, and specifically the Wounded Warrior Battalion-West of the Marines (“WWB”). When the Marines, thinking outside the box, said “let’s try this,” our therapy professionals, surfing experts, and volunteers took on the challenge. We called it a pilot program.
We weren’t sure if the program we had developed for children would work with Marines. They are the toughest of the tough, they’re hardened, their warriors — now wounded, ill or injured — but warriors nonetheless.
From that very first session with the Marines, we learned that ocean therapy would work. And from that first session we observed something — the Marines were mostly young. They had volunteered to protect and defend their country right out of high school — 18-years-old. Most had come from inland. Many had never seen the ocean until joining the Marines, They had gone to training. They had gone overseas. They took the brunt of terrible battle, in part because they were the youngest, they were the “foot soldiers.” Then they had come back from war. It may have seemed like a lifetime of experiences, but they returned still young — some still teenagers, many in their early twenties. Now they were at Camp Pendleton assigned to the WWB. Camp Pendleton has one of the most awesome stretches of beach and surf anywhere in the world.We introduced these young men and women to the ocean, to surf, to fun, to ocean therapy. Ocean therapy is helping kids of all ages recover from the wars that have engulfed their young lives. DZ
