Mark Hanley, Founder and President, is excited to announce the Fallen Waterman’s Foundation is live.
“Our mission is to help the children of fallen watermen and women get the college educations their parents would want them to have.”
Their objective is to reach out to the “Waterman” community to raise money to pay for these children’s college tuitions. The FWF focuses on surfing, diving and kite/sailboarding participants. It is open to the everyday waterman that has found a way to make the ocean part of their lives, not just professional or sponsored athletes.
Another key element of the Fallen Waterman’s Foundation is that a waterman does not have to have died while pursuing his or her passion.
“Most of us know some avid waterman that tragically dies of cancer or in a car accident. These are examples of cases where the FWF will still be there to help.”
Hanley continues, “Our goal is to establish a network of FWF ambassadors in each beach community up and down the West Coast. Based on our Facebook friends, it looks like there is worldwide interest as well. These ambassadors will reach out to the local groups, companies and establishments that are part of our community of surfers, divers and kiteboarders to see how they can help raise money for the FWF through donations, events or causal marketing efforts.”
A great example of a causal marketing effort is when a local shaper in Huntington Beach, Jon Berger, of “Bald Jonny’s Longboards” said he would include the FWF logo on every board he shapes and have a stipend from each sale go to the FWF.
“Our goal is to have 95% of the donations go directly to pay for college tuitions.” Hanley said.
To find out more about the FWF go to their website at www.fallenwatermansfoundation.org and click the “Our Story” dropdown on the “About Us” tab. It is the story of the incident that inspired Hanley to create the foundation. They also want to collect additional rescue stories where people have helped others in their time of need. “We made a “Talk Story” tab where people can share their stories. Our goal is to compile a number of these tales and put them in a book and have the proceeds go toward the FWF’s grants.”
Hanley concludes by saying, “The bottom line is the number of children the FWF will be able to help will be directly related to the commitments and outpouring of support that we receive from our extended communities.
