Help lil brothers without dads…
Joe Sigurdson isn’t afraid to talk about his darkest
days.
“I was 28 years old living a double-life,” he says. “I was
dealing dope in the parking lot while my kids were building
sandcastles on the beach. I was running poundage up and down
between San Diego and LA. I was pretty big, a substantial guy, so I
was doing ‘collections’ for a coke dealer too… All the while I was
married with a real job.”
Thirty years after turning his life around, Sigurdson is still
an imposing figure.
But, his biggest threat these days are his bear hugs.
Joe turned Disney dad shortly after he got sober in the early
nineties.
Pretty soon, other kids from his son’s Little League team were
at his house all day after practices and games.
“They’d raid our fridge. We’d play ball in the yard. I’d play
quarterback for both sides. I’d pitch. I’d take ‘em surfing… It was
fun, but they wouldn’t want to go home.”
Eventually, he noticed a pattern.
“One by one, their moms started calling, asking if I could talk
to their sons about problems they were having. That’s when I
realized none of them had dads.”
When those calls kept coming his wheels started turning.
“I’d learned so much at these self-improvement outings like the
Mankind Project. I was forty then going, ‘Man, this stuff is great.
I could have used this when I was 14.’”
Which is how Boys
to Men Mentoring came to be.
Joe and his co-founders are more than twenty years into their
mission now, having transformed the lives of thousands of at-risk
boys living in marginalized communities by providing them love and
support.
“It’s not rocket science,” says Joe, when talking about why they
succeed. “We all do better when we check in with loved ones and
hold each other accountable.”
It’s worth noting, his mentors abide by one very strict
rule.
“We never tell kids what to do,” says Joe. “Our job is to listen
and understand the issues they’re facing. And if there’s a struggle
we explore the options and shed light on what’s likely to happen if
they stay on the current path. Mentors share their own experiences,
mistakes, and lessons learned. But the choice is all theirs. All we
do is take an inventory of how those decisions play out. And it
works.”
Dana Wright, a former principal at Spring Valley Academy, swears
by their success, and she’s not alone.
“If I had a chance to talk to every middle school administrator
in the country about what they could do to make a difference it
would be Boys to Men,” she says.
And what’s fascinating about Boys to Men Mentoring, is
the San Diego surfing community powers their operation.
Surfers have rallied behind the cause, helping Joe and his team
come up with creative ways to raise the funds needed to facilitate
new programs, find mentors, and expand into new schools.
The 100 Wave Challenge, an annual Jog-a-Thon style event in the
waves, is their biggest hit.
The 10th annual 100 Wave Challenge raised $430,000 last year,
enough to provide a year’s worth of mentorship services to nearly
1000 kids.
Sadly, with the world going sideways in 2020 the need for Boys
to Men is greater than ever. Keeping them engaged and connected is
crucial to their health and safety.
Yet early this summer, Sigurdson warned his supporters that this
year’s 100 Wave Challenge may not happen, and by some miracle it
did, it certainly couldn’t be on the usual scale, with hundreds
showing up in Mission Beach.
“That didn’t sit well with anyone,” says Joe.
His fellow surfers floated an alternative: let’s
expand.
After all, they argued, Boys to Men’s impact is global now.
Sure, San Diego is where it all started, but they provide
guidance to independent chapters in seventeen different states and
nine different countries at HQ.
Why not reflect that?
After several Zoom calls, Joe and his team obliged, adding a new
twist.
This year it’s “Your 100 Wave Challenge.”
You pick the crew, the beach, and the time, between now and
November 22nd, and make it happen.
“Two months ago, we were feeling pretty hopeless,” says
Sigurdson. “Thanks to our surfers, I’m starting to believe this may
end up being our biggest year yet. Our big signup push doesn’t
typically start until after Labor Day, but word is already
spreading through surf clubs and surf shops and social media. And
our surfers are getting calls from people asking how they can
help.”
The answer is simple: Grab some friends, get ‘em together, and
give these kids your love.
Register to
participate
Donate
directly
Learn
more.
(Warning: vid below is tear jerker.)
