I started StreetWaves this year. I've been getting a lot of first experiences. I got to help fix
a boat and I got to drive a boat. I got to go on water. I got to swim and meet a lot of new people.
I've been looking at like how to swim and stuff and fixing the boat and stuff.
Working with the team like we're all friends and we all can communicate with each other,
I like that a lot. The fact that we're all working on a boat together, it's really good.
My name is Maui Goodbeer. I'm the founder and executive director of StreetWaves.
We've been around since 2008. We started off as a swimming and surfing organization, and we've
just kind of grown. Over the past couple of years we've gotten more into maritime career training,
maritime opportunities, offshore fishing. And so we're here today at Murrelle Marine,
where they have been super, super, super kind, to donate some of their space for us to work
on our boat. So for the last month and a half, two months, we've been in the boatyard, working on the
boat and our boat is called MOBY. MOBY stands for Maritime Opportunities for Black Youth.
It's our gift to them to give them an opportunity to explore the ocean, to learn about maritime
careers, and understand the opportunities that take place in the blue economy. And the kids learn
so much during that process of how the engine works, how the fluids go through the engine.
The engine is cooled by saltwater and freshwater coolant. And we just learned a ton
working on the boat every day for that period of time. Since that time, we have installed a tuna
tower that will assist in going offshore. We have a program that takes kids and cops
offshore fishing through a partnership with FPL in the United Way. And that's been going really,
really great and I'm really excited to invite law enforcement onboard our vessel to fish with us.
Being in the yard, we've met some amazing boat painters and fiberglass workers and
engine mechanics and all of these various different careers
that are extremely lucrative. And the blue economy worldwide is a multi-trillion-dollar industry.
And these children who live in a coastal community should know as much as possible about it. And it
really boils down to being exposed to it. And so that's our goal is to expose the children to it.
It's our motto that the water will do the work. And so we just get 'em in the water safely,
and we let that relationship between themselves and the ocean develop on its own.
It really all starts with swimming. I mean, swimming opens a world of opportunity,
like nothing else. And it's so simple. In a nine-week program, these children go from
non-swimmers to good swimmers. They continue to swim and they become great swimmers.
We bus 'em to the ocean. We bus 'em to the pool. We bring 'em to the boat yard when we need to
repair, we bring 'em to our boat, and we get in the ocean. We stay wet at StreetWaves, for sure.
Marina is my life now. I mean, it all started off with swimming. I didn't know how to swim before,
but now that I know how to swim, now I'm a lifeguard.
And now I have the entire whole bunch of doors open for me. And I'm so proud of that.
So at first I was a participant and then slowly, I began helping out more and then
I became a lifeguard and I was able to help teach at the camp and become a coach.
And I got another certification. So now I can work anywhere as a lifeguard in Broward County.
It's real important for us to reach out to children from underserved communities,
because oftentimes for cultural reasons, for social reasons, they're missing out
on something that we feel is their birthright, being born in this environment. If we looked
along the coast and other parts of the world, we see that the people that live in coastal
communities are connected to the ocean. It's their life source. And it really is ours as well.
I want to get into marine biology and hopefully like taking pictures
of like creatures, like deep in the water.
So we really want to focus on continuing for kids to learn to swim, growing our organization
along the coast so that kids are surfing along the coast that wouldn't normally be seen in the water.
Kids are swimming along the coast that normally wouldn't have learned how to swim,
which is such an important life skill. And being able to have them exposed to the ocean by boat.
It's a life-changing experience. And we want them to have it.