The camp is not just about learning where the hull is on the sailboat or how to steer the vessel as it glides on the water – it’s about gaining confidence to navigate life.
Twenty neuro-diverse children were treated to a three-day Spectrum Sailing camp in Newport Beach this week, an opportunity for the youngsters to try something new with others on the autism spectrum.
“We want to make sure everyone has a chance to get on the water. You live in a place like this, or we go to tons of cities that are on the water, and there’s hundreds of hundreds of kids that have never been on a boat, or have never been to the beach or gone surfing,” the nonprofit Spectrum Sailing’s founder Scott Herman said as three 20-foot boats got ready to set sail in the Newport Harbor on Thursday, Feb. 22. “It’s great to give the kids a chance to do something like this.”
Spectrum Sailing is a national autism sailing program, with 10 camps held around the country throughout the year. The program’s partnership this week with the Orange Coast College School for Sailing and Seamanship marked its first stop of the year.
Herman first launched the program about eight years ago, wanting to share his love of sailing with his then 8-year-old son, Daniel. There was one problem – there were no programs available geared toward children on the autism spectrum.
“No one would let him go to camp,” Herman recalled. “So we decided to create our own.”
He took inspiration, he said, from the Orange County-based Surfers Healing, a nonprofit group created by Izzy and Danielle Paskowitz after they found salt water helped calm their autistic son Isaiah.
They, too, faced frustration finding a place for their son to enjoy the outdoors, so the San Juan Capistrano couple created the surfing experience nearly 25 years ago to help children learn to surf, all for free.
Now, they too hold events around the country – including at Folly Beach, in South Carolina, where Daniel took a…
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