Two San Francisco natives are sharing their love of surfing to empower young people who are facing trauma in their lives.
The sounds of young people splashing in the ocean make Tim Gras happy.
“To have a moment where you can experience a little joy and feel good, that’s something,” Gras said.
Gras, along with Eddie Donnellan, lead a surf camp at Bolinas Beach. Donnellan hopes the youth will catch the same wave of healing he felt at age 14 growing up in a broken home.
“Being immersed in the water and surfing was transformative for me at that age,” he said. “It brought me a lot of, I think, immediate joy.”
Gras and Donnellan became friends while surfing, and both worked at Edgewood Center for Children and Families, a mental healthcare provider based in San Francisco.
They’ve spent a major part of their careers working with kids facing severe trauma, and they noticed the therapeutic effect of taking young people into the great outdoors.
“And any time we took them camping or to the beach out here or just outside, you could see right away…this is better for them. It’s a better day,” Gras said.
Both Donnellan and Gras started a nonprofit, MeWater Foundation, in 2015.
Today, the pair and their 300 volunteers provide free surf camps for up to 1,000 underserved young people and their relatives each year at San Francisco and Marin County beaches.
“Mother Nature is magical in so many different ways, but the reality of MeWater is we allow the kids to make it their own experience,” Donnellan said.
On this day, 40 young people are on board from Project Avary, a leadership development program for young people with a relative who is incarcerated.
Some soak in Gras’ teaching, while others smile as Donnellan captures video of the memories and milestones of the daytrip.    
Lexi, who did not use her last name, learned to swim at the MeWater camps. She says the outings have transformed her outlook.
“It makes my whole life better because ever since I first started to come here, all my bad thoughts and all the stuff I was thinking before washed away after I was with them,” she said.
Project Avary Program Manager Ziri Rivera says participants ride a wave of community care and support, thanks to MeWater.
“They go home with their hearts warm, knowing that they got to experience this, a lot of them, for the very first time,” Rivera said.
MeWater’s funding comes from donations and grants. It does not receive federal funding.
This year, the nonprofit also awarded scholarships to three college students who had gone through the MeWater program. Besides the financial award, the students receive mentorship and support in meeting basic needs.
In the last few years, Donnellan and Gras expanded the Bay Area daytime and overnight surf camps to camping trips to Yosemite, New York, Santa Barbara, and even a small village in Alaska.
“A little bit of joy and a positive moment, when maybe they go back to a harder experience, they have something to smile about,” Gras said.
Donellan added, “If we can just uplift the day. Doesn’t it all start with having a good day?”
For bringing joy and healing to at-risk young people through the MeWater Foundation, this week’s CBS News Bay Area Icon Award goes to Eddie Donnellan and Tim Gras.