Surfers Healing Camp Helps Autistic Children Learn To Surf
OCEAN CITY, Md. (WJZ) -- More than 200 children with autism gathered on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City.
As Mike Schuh reports, a team of professions were on hand to help them learn to surf.
WBOC-TV reports the annual Surfers Healing camp in Ocean City helps children learn to catch their first wave.
The surfing is used as a form of therapy for the children and they learned from the best -- pro surfers from all around the world.
"For him to get out there in the water on a surfboard and just be free was great. I was a wreck. I was crying. I was just excited for him, happy for him, but yet scared to death because I didn't want anything to happen to him," a parent, George Mauler, told WBOC.
In 2014, more than 4,000 children participated in the event nationally.
Some of them on the way out are just not interested in going," event organizer Woody German said to WBOC. "They're kicking, and screaming, and they're fighting us the whole way and then when they're coming back in you just see their faces and we're all standing here crying along with the parents, because everyone's crying. If you're paying attention to what's going on you're going to be crying."
There was no charge to the kids or their parents for that day in the waves.
Learn more about Surfers Healing camp or donate here: http://www.surfershealing.org/