Boarding House Mentors

About Us!!! Boarding House Mentors was established in the summer of 2001 by Alan Scott, an artist and former Dogtown and Z-boy. He grew up in a tough neighborhood and credited surfing as saving his life. He wanted to give back to the sport that saved him. He recruited surfer and former NSSA competitor Maria Busby who was excited about teaching underserved kids to surf. Thereafter, Alan needed to recruit kids. After being turned down by a number of community organizations, Alan recruited Tony LoRe from a mentoring organization in south L.A. called Youth Mentoring Connection who believed in his vision. Together Alan, Maria and Tony held their first surf sessions for underserved kids on the south end of the Santa Monica pier. The feedback from both kids and volunteers was tremendous and the organization has since grown to serving 100+ kids and volunteers per session on any given summer program day.

What We Do? Boarding House Mentors introduces at-risk youth to the exhilaration of surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding in order to broaden their life experiences with positive, healthy, non-competitive activities that may have a significant impact on their self-image and self-confidence. Boarding House Mentors youth learn board sports in a fun, supportive environment under the supervision of experienced surfers, snowboarders and skateboarders who share the positive impact that boards sports have had on their lives. Board sports can be very challenging. Take surfing for example; it is a challenging sport that requires persistence and adaptability to ever-changing elements of the ocean and weather. By meeting and overcoming these challenges and learning to master the skills of surfing, youth develop confidence to explore other new experiences and the rewards of perseverance. We hope to foster a love of board sports so that both youth and their mentors will adopt these sports as a popular activity that they can pursue on their own. Ultimately, it is our hope that the youth will find that surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding are healthy sports that they can enjoy for a lifetime that will open new opportunities beyond their usual environment.

Want to volunteer? Please go to http://www.boardinghousementors.org/Volunteer.html

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Boarding
• House
• Mentors