A charity born out of family tragedy is making waves for vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
SalTy Souls Legacy has been putting vulnerable and disengaged Sunshine Coast children aged 5 to 17 through surfing programs since 2018, gifting participants with much more than just surf skills to take home.
The charity is in memory of local surfer Tyler Kennedy, who tragically died while on a surf trip in Bali in 2017.
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Struggling to channel the family grief, Tyler’s older sister Tamara Smith eventually founded the charity to keep the dream of her 31-year-old brother alive.
“SalTy Souls Legacy came out of our grief and our pain and not having anywhere for it to go,” she said.
“Tyler had drawn a sketch on one of his surf trips and he had ‘salty souls’ written in that sketch and he also had it tattooed on his ankle.”
The phrase was created to reflect the love Tyler and his friends have for the ocean, during one of their many trips. Now, the capital ‘T’ is in honour of the Moffat Beach local.
“Tyler was the saltiest of souls,” Ms Smith said.
“We began trademarking the sketch and people were suggesting we start a surf shop, but nothing sat well with us.
“Our mates started wanting a T-shirt for a festival with the sketch and even when we were making a few dollars from the tees, we weren’t comfortable having any of the funds kept for ourselves so we thought ‘what can we do here?’.
“Tyler was always in the water and he wanted to travel the coastline of Australia and teach kids how to surf.
“He learnt to surf on a second-hand board, so our initial goal was to get surfboards from all over and give (them) to vulnerable kids who wanted to have a go at surfing but couldn’t afford it.”
Ms Smith said from the sale of the initial T-shirts, SalTy Souls was able to fund the first eight children through a program.
The fully funded surf therapy programs run for six weeks and each child is gifted a repurposed surfboard and beach starter kit so they can continue their new-found love of surfing post-program.
“Children are referred to us from schools, children services, foster groups, health services and women’s and children’s shelters,” Ms Smith said.
“The first program ran in 2018 and the feedback we are getting from the youth organisations (and) from the case workers, is just the positive impact long term.”
She said the programs gave a real sense of “community and belonging” to the children and the charity extended invites to siblings to make it a real family affair.
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“We like to include siblings so kids have someone they can do the program with.”
“That fits with me because of the bond I have with my two brothers and I know how important that is to me.”
Ms Smith said she still struggled with the grief of losing her brother.
“It still can just stop your heart and take your breath away.
“There are still days I wake up and think, ‘oh is Tyler really not here’ and I get the same feeling with Salty’s as well, like, are we really doing this?.
“Now when I have that wave, I channel that energy straight into Salty’s; the heart is actually driving it.”
While community support has been “unreal”, Ms Smith said there is now a waitlist for programs and the charity was looking for business support to help run more programs throughout the year.
“It costs about $560 to $800 per child for the six-week program and a board.
“Everything is in house and volunteer run, and it would be great to have support so we can run, organise and facilitate the programs and deal with general run-of business.
“It is ready to take off, but businesses pledging sponsorship would help give us secured funding so we can plan programs ahead.”
“We want to keep children off the waitlist and make sure we can put all the children through the programs.”
Hoping to give SalTy Souls Legacy a boost, Rotary Club of Alexandra Headland has chosen the charity as the major beneficiary for the upcoming Winter Solstice Swim on June 27.
Out-going secretary John Molloy said the club’s aim was to help establish a base for the charity to refurbish surfboards.
“We are hoping to make enough funds so that we can buy a couple of shipping containers, so they have a workshop to fix up surfboards and hand out surfboards and wet suits,” Mr Molloy said.
The swim was established by the club five years ago to keep the calendar of events active during the cooler months.
“It has been growing year on year and we generally get up to 200 swimmers swimming between one and five kilometres.
“We usually organise kids activities and a warm-up in the park, which is always good fun.
“The event gains a lot of community interest.”
During this year’s event, Alex SLSC will be on hand for water safety and the Mooloolaba Yacht Club has donated oversized buoys for the swim.
To register for the swim, visit alexandrarotary.com to access a QR code with the event information.
To learn more about the work of SalTy Souls Legacy, visit: saltysoulslegacy.org.
