PADDLE ROYALE: Ponte Vedrans 'parade' in support of autistic children

By Maggie FitzRoy

maggie.fitzroy@jacksonville.com

Mickler's Landing Beach is normally bustling with activity on Labor Day as beach lovers from miles around flock there to celebrate the traditional last day of summer.

But this year the place was packed by 8 a.m. for a new and unique event for a good cause.

The Great Ponte Vedra Paddle featured a 3-mile stand up paddle board race, a 1-mile stand up paddle board race, an "Anything that Floats" ocean parade, and a 1-mile "Landlubbers Run/Walk" to raise money for HEAL - Helping Every Autistic Life Foundation - based in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The four-hour festival was designed to offer something for surfers and nonsurfers, event founder Dana Current said.

"The whole idea behind this was that Ponte Vedra doesn't have a parade on any holiday," he said. "We don't have a main street, once in a while we'll have fireworks. So we wanted to give the community something to rally around on a major holiday - and if we can support a wonderful local community cause like HEAL, what better way to spend it?"

HEAL executive director Linda Carzoli said she was thrilled with the turn out. As she watched scores of stand up paddle boarders race off shore in the 3-mile competition, she said 174 people registered to participate in the event's activities online, and many more people registered as walk-ups.

"It's fantastic," she said. "Some people just came to the beach this morning, saw what was happening, and signed up."

HEAL serves individuals with autism and their families in Northeast Florida through special camps and programs.

Carzoli, who has a 12-year-old son with autism, said the nonprofit organization has grown to the point where it now serves about 1,000 kids as well as adults.

The organization traditionally funds a variety of camps. Leslie Weed, one of HEAL's founders, said 18 grants for camps were awarded this year with activities such as golf, art, drama, horseback riding, music video and surfing.

The programs are offered at little or no cost to the families.

Weed said the community's support for HEAL "just keeps growing," and this will help fund grants for area classrooms that serve children with autism in the Northeast Florida area.

"We had raised over $30,000, not counting the walk ups," she said prior to the start time.

Current said the idea for the Great Paddle came to his family recently as they sat around the kitchen table. Current, who serves on the HEAL board of directors, is a surfer and so are his children Emily, 17, Charlie, 14, and his wife, Jane. They believed the Beaches surfing community would rally around the HEAL cause and they also wanted to offer activities that anyone could participate in.

Dana Current convinced 20 of his closest friends to adopt the event as founding sponsors, and next year hopes to expand it into a full day Labor Day festival.

Stand up paddle boarding is growing in popularity, and the 3-mile race was designed to attract experienced paddlers, HEAL president Alan Pickert said. Prizes were awarded to the fastest male and female finishers.

The 1-mile race was for those who are less experienced or willing to try it for the first time, a group that included Pickert. During a test run, he said he spent more time in the water than on the board, "but it is such a wonderful cause I couldn't help but come out."

The "Anything that Floats" parade was designed for everybody, Carzoli said. The approximately half-mile activity included boogie boards, rafts, inner tubes and creative costumes.

Autism is a developmental disorder that impacts social and communication skills. In the past five years, HEAL has raised about $1 million dollars for educational and respite programs.

Pickert doesn't have a child with autism, but he said he got involved with the organization in 2002 after realizing what parents of children with autism go through, and how much they need support.

"It's a 24-7-365 situation," and "I am amazed at the lack of services for the autism community in North Florida," he said. "I am equally amazed at how HEAL has come in to try to fill that need."

Maggie FitzRoy can be contacted at (904) 302-3394.