[slideshow_deploy id='150427']
As an American flag, fixed to the top of a boat, fluttered in the wind blowing across Bartlett Lake, four girls perched on the boat’s nose waited eagerly for their turn to get in the water.
On Saturday morning at Bartlett Lake, Wake the World gathered 49 children from Sunshine Acres Children’s Home and Scottsdale Prevention Institute, two Valley group homes, to provide them with an opportunity to enjoy a day on the lake. Children were encouraged to try wakeboarding, tubing or just enjoying a day at the lake.
Three of the girls participated in the event last year and came to experience the fun again. After getting on the water, they held firmly on to the tube, cutting through the waves. Despite tilting and flipping over occasionally, the smiles never vanished from their faces.
“I think everyone was looking forward to this day,” said Angel Cruz, 14, who lives at Sunshine Acres. “Some people have been asking for a month ‘When are we going to go to the lake?’”
This was the third Wake the World event held in Arizona this year by ASU alumna Shea Graves to give children the confidence to try something new and just put a smile on their face, she said.
“These kids are coming from the place where they are told, ‘You can’t do this, you’ll never be good at that,’” she said. “So it’s just a day about showing them that they can and they will. It’s about instilling confidence in them, I just feel like having that can-do positivity can bring so much into their life.”
The Wake the World organization began in North Carolina in 2008 when eight families got together to arrange a day on the lake for residents of a local children’s home. Since then, the group has been striving to provide similar opportunities to abandoned, abused or neglected children in more than 40 states in the U.S.
Arizona was the 13th state to host the Wake the World event, thanks to the efforts of Graves and other volunteers.
Clay Denk, an ASU alumnus and one of many volunteers at the event, offered his boat to take the kids around the lake. He said it’s been great to share his passion for watersports with others.
“It’s a wonderful experience for them to see natural beauty,” he said. “Also, get some sunshine, smile and bond.”
Graves began spending five days a week at the lake just for fun. It was then that Graves said she realized she was taking this opportunity for granted.
“It got to the point where some nights I was like, ‘Oh man, I have to get up early tomorrow, darn,’” she said. “And then I was like, 'Wait there’re some people who will never have the chance to do that in their lives,' and I’m tired and taking for granted being able to do this five days a week.”
When her friend told her about a Wake the World event in California, she decided to bring the opportunity to the kids in Arizona.
“It was about being able to give these kids a glimpse of something that makes me and many other people so happy,” Graves said.
Graves, a native Arizonan, grew up among saguaros and lots of pets. The lake was always her happy place, she said, and her dad began taking her fishing there when she was no older than one.
When Graves was a junior in high school, her dad handed her a wakeboard, a lifejacket and a video, and he told her she had an hour to watch it. After the hour passed, Graves was taken aback when her dad returned with a 1970s jet boat he had just bought, behind which she learned her first wakeboarding moves.
Today, Graves works as a marketing consultant and a DJ, and barely has time to enjoy water sports, but there’s still nothing else she’s rather do, she said.
Jose Ruiz, 12, who lives at Sunshine Acres, came to the event for the second time, but at first seemed hesitant to get on the boat. After he gave it a try, he managed to get up on a wakeboard easily, and said it felt refreshing.
”It was cool and fun,” he said. “I feel like it’s my best fit, because I’m used to the water and I didn’t have any problems with that.”
David Duhigg, Graves’ fiancé, has been very supportive with all her undertakings, including Wake the World. When he volunteered to drive the children to and from Bartlett Lake last year, it was heart-warming to see the change in the kids after they had experienced a day on the lake, he said.
“You see them at the beginning and they have that urban front, they are very tough, and rugged and don’t talk to me, don’t look at me,” he said. “But then, it still gives me goose bumps to this days, as you drop in to Bartlett Lake, you cross that one final hill and the lake opens up and you get to see it. And the toughest kid says, ‘Oh man, I thought this only happens in the movies.’”
Some kids have never seen the lake before, and it was humbling to see the wall break down, Duhigg said.
“It was a lot of work, a lot of effort, but at the end of the day, it’s the smiles, the little comments that you hear... and you realize the impact that you just had,” he said.
Reach the reporter at kmaryaso@asu.edu or follow on Twitter @KseniaMaryasova
