He plans to keep making surfboards for as long as it resonates and helps people. That’s where she was meant to be,” said Sexton, who created a foundation in Kinley’s honor to raise awareness and funding for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma research.įischer continues to accept names through email and social media. “It means the world to us and I know she would just think that it’s the greatest thing ever. The third anniversary of her death is Tuesday. Sexton said the timing was so perfect that Kinley must have had a hand in it. AP Photo/Steven Senneįischer added Kinley’s name to the third board just before Memorial Day and planned to take her surfing with him over the holiday weekend. Dan Fischer created the One Last Wave Project in January 2022 to use the healing power of the ocean to help families coping with a loss. Kinley died in 2019 at age 6 of a highly aggressive brain tumor.įischer’s first two boards were full, with 1,500 names on one and 2,000 names on the other, but he was working on a third. Ashley Sexton, of Cincinnati, contacted Fischer after she saw a post on social media about the project because her daughter loved the ocean so much that she begged her family to move to Florida. He etches their loved one’s name onto one of his surfboards and takes them out into the ocean, in spirit anyway, for “one last wave,” as a way to memorialize them in a place that was meaningful to them. I feel a commitment to helping their families and honoring them every time I go out.”įischer, 42, created the One Last Wave Project in January to use the healing power of the ocean to help families coping with a loss, like he was. “Now it’s sort of me and all these individuals. “It’s a very different experience for me than it used to be, when it was just me and the board,” he said this month after surfing in Newport. His father’s name is the guiding light at the top. When he catches a wave along the shores of Rhode Island, he looks down at a surfboard covered with the names of people who have died, but who shared his love of the ocean. NEWPORT, RI - Surfing is no longer a solitary pursuit for Dan Fischer.
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