A note from the Director, Kelly Potts
This summer’s Del Norte Surfers Retreat was one for the books. The day I drove down the coast from Oregon to Northern California to start prepping for the retreat, I heard news of the wildfires that wiped out my hometown of Lahaina, on the same day ravaging another part of Maui in upcountry, Kula. The devastation was shocking. It all happened in one day.
When I arrived at the Elk Valley Rancheria campground that day, waves of grief washed over me as I offloaded the All Are We trailer and set up our volunteer camp alone.
The next day I went to grab supplies at the grocery store. Midway through, I found I was holding on to random objects that I didn’t realize I brought into the store with me. That’s when I went back to my truck to have a talk with myself.
Is one woman going to make or break the relief effort, if I ditched everything right then and there to fly home and do whatever I could to help? Or was it more important that I follow through with providing the retreat, with so many folks counting on me to be there?
I decided I needed to stay and follow through with hosting the retreat. Which led to the next talk I needed to have with myself. “You need to stay present with so many precious lives in your hands.” Practicing being in the present moment was challenging alone, but help was on the way.
The sight of volunteers showing up was automatic relief: having company to distract me from everything going on back home, folks to bring me joy and laughter, support and encouragement. The only way we pulled off the Del Norte Surfers Retreat this summer was through the effort of the huge-hearted volunteers who came to offer their love and support to the precious tribal communities of Del Norte County in Northern California.
And we had a blast doing it!
Here are some of the highlights from this summer’s Del Norte Surfers Retreat:
Surfers who have come to surf with us each year since 2017 came back for more - that’s 5 years!! (because we didn’t offer programs during covid).
One of our returning surfers, Tsinte, came up to me after one of her lessons this summer and said, “I’ve been saving up money for years and I thought I wanted to buy a goat with it, but instead I would like to buy a surfboard.” I helped her order her first custom surfboard, which could be the first ever amongst her tribal community.
Last year, after the Del Norte Surfers Retreat, I learned about the North Coast Jr. Lifeguards program offered in Crescent City and reached out to the program director, Dillon Cleavenger, to ask about securing 12 scholarships for tribal youth to attend for free. This year, all those spots were secured and filled. Dillon let me know that providing those scholarships for the Del Norte Tribal community will be a part of their policy each year moving forward. From our talks with Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, they would like to secure even more spots for their youth in 2024.
Also in my conversation with the great folks at Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, we have planned a beach festival style day-retreat in the spring of 2024 to introduce their new YEAR-ROUND program!! They want to kick off the introduction of the program with a celebration, so stay tuned with information about when the event will be, and volunteer opportunities to come help out. It should be a lot of fun!
There were so many other highlights from this summer; too many to mention them all. It was sweet to see an entire family sign up to learn how to surf together, new faces joined us this year, an auntie and her nephew had a lesson to themselves (so cute!), returning surfers were starting to show up with their own gear, one returning surfer offered to help his cousin get into waves… The list goes on and on.
Some of the sweetest moments were hanging out with all the volunteers at the end of the day, sitting around the campfire, eating food together, and telling stories about all they witnessed while they offered their support for this amazing community. Volunteers who had never met before grew close, and a new ‘ohana (family) was made.
Big Mahalo Nui Loa (much gratitude) to our Volunteers from this summer’s Del Norte Surfers Retreat! We did it! Thanks for having my back when I needed it the most.