Due to the generosity of the Tony Hawk Foundation, S-One Helmet Company, Laguna Surf & Sport, Globe Shoes, and ZJ Boarding House, on January 16 the children residing at Rancho del Niño  Nueva Vida were the very excited recipients of skateboards, helmets, and skate shoes. 

Rancho del Niño  Nueva Vida is a multi-denominational boys’ home founded in 1999 by Pastor Oskar and Beatriz Kiser with the mission of providing a positive, communal, and family environment for children in the Rosarito area. Some of the boys are orphans; some come from very poor families that cannot currently provide for them; some come from broken homes or have been abandoned by their parents; others are victims of drug or child abuse; and some children have simply been left on the streets to fend for themselves.

Last November, the boys were asked by a local volunteer what they hoped to receive for Christmas.  Almost unanimously, the boys responded: “a skateboard!”  Given their limited resources, the director of the orphanage believed that the boys’ wish had very little likelihood of being fulfilled.  However, during a visit to Rosarito Beach in December, Bill Sharp, a surfer and champion kneeboarder who is well-known in the surf industry for his marketing and creative vision as the former editor of Surfing Magazine and the creator or the K2 Challenge, was told about the boys’ “wish” and decided to take time out of his short vacation to make a trip out to “the Ranch.”  When he arrived, the children proudly demonstrated some of the skate tricks that they had mastered on the single skateboard they all shared.  Bill took some photos of the boys and, when he returned home to Orange County, shared them with some friends in the industry asking them to help make the boys’ wish come true.  The response was overwhelming.   Within a few days, Bill received enough skateboards and helmets so that each child could have one of his very own.

The incredible generosity of caring individuals turned January 16, 2010 into a day that will certainly be remembered by these children as one of the happiest of their lives.