On Saturday, Sept.17, hundreds of surfers will hit the water at Mission Beach in the seventh annual 100 Wave Challenge to support Boys to Men Mentoring aiding at-risk youth.
The goal is for each participating surfer to raise $1,000 for Boys to Men Mentoring.
Boys to Men is a community of dedicated men able to guide and support young, often fatherless boys on their journey to manhood. The community-based mentoring approach gives boys a variety of male role models who show up consistently, tell the truth, discuss growing up, praise them for their gifts and support them when they fail encouraging them to become the men they want to be.
Every week, Boys to Men mentors show up at middle and high schools and foster care facilities to give teenage boys a community of mentors who listen, encourage and believe in them.
Boys to Men mentor Craig McClain noted the international mentoring program is active in 30 cities on four continents. He talked about the need for the program and its mentors.
“Thirty-three percent of kids in the United States grow up without a dad,” said McClain, noting the 100 Wave Challenge is the group’s biggest fundraiser providing about 60 percent of annual donations.
“We raised $60,000 last year and our goal this year is to raise $400,000,” McClain said.
Noting many single-parent, at-risk families are poor, McClain said Boys to Men mentors outreach to 30 middle and high schools in San Diego consulting with school counselors to identify their most at-risk youth.
“They send them to us and we work with them during the school day or after school,” he said. “Typically, two or three mentors sit with 10 to 15 teenage boys talking with them about how to deal with issues they have, letting them know people care about them. It kind of gives them a sounding board for dealing with what’s going on in their lives. What Boys To Men does is give these kids a chance to make a choice,” he said. McClain said the 100 Wave Challenge is a creative fundraiser that “had never been done before.”
“It’s a marathon,” McClain pointed out noting riding 100 waves in a day is “reachable,” though he added the number of waves ridden isn’t nearly as important as the donations participants solicit in the form of pledges from friends and supporters for their cause.
“We just hit $140,000 in donations, more than 25 percent to our goal,” he said.
McClain pointed out it’s important to reach at-risk boys early noting fatherless boys are 20 times more likely to go to prison, which he said costs society an estimated $60,000 a year, as opposed to $500 a year for the Boys To Men program.
At-risk, fatherless boys are also nine times more likely to use drugs and eight times more likely to drop out of school.
“What Boys To Men does is give these kids a chance to make a choice,” he said. “Do they want to be drug dealers, or play on the football team? They (mostly) all want to play football or go to school and be successful. It’s just that the deck is stacked against them if they don’t have someone to advocate for them.”
For more information visit www.boystomen.org.
