The other week my three girls participated in the 6th Annual Keiki Paddle. The Keiki Paddle consists of children between the ages of 7-16 paddling in an open ocean paddle to provide financial and emotional support to both a child with a life threatening illness and a nonprofit that supprts children with a life threatening illness.
What continues to stick with me these last few weeks, is that this event is over 100 everyday kids participating in philanthropy and what's more, the event was started by everyday dads.
The Keiki Paddle is an offshoot of the Friendship Paddle, which was founded over 10 years ago when a group of ocean loving guys wanted to do something to show support for their 39 year old friend battling cancer. The Keiki Paddle was started several years later because many of the children, seeing their Dad's paddle in the Friendship Paddle, wanted to participate.
Additionally, the Dad's wanted to instill the fundamental concept of giving back to your community and having a little fun while doing it. They have even taken it a step further and have created a junior advisory board so kids can also get experience organizing and running an event. These everyday kids have raised approximately $100,000 since the event began.
So what started out as everyday dad's wanting to do something to show love and support to their friend has impacted hundreds of other everyday dads and children who have participated in both the Friendship Paddle and the Keiki Paddle over the years. They have also provided financial and emotional support to almost 20 beneficiaries both adults and kids with life threatening illness and to multiple nonprofit agencies that support these families.
This year's beneficiaries of the Kieki paddle were 7 year old Samuel Helfand and the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. Click here to support this year's paddle.
You can also hear more about the Keiki Paddle on this NPR story including hearing from teens Tavis Boise and Chase McFadden who both had parents who were beneficiaries of the Friendship Paddle. They carry on the memory of their parent by being key organizers of the Keiki Paddle.
This is an example of everyday people being philanthropist at it's best!
