Surfers Healing Day ‘Means The World’ To Many Families

OCEAN CITY — Baltimore natives Edward and Marianne O’Keefe stood on the shoreline just steps from the water’s edge in front of the Castle in the Sand Hotel on Wednesday morning with tears in their eyes, and their cell phones in hand, poised to capture a moment they’ve been waiting years to experience: their 18-year-old daughter Mallory surfing.

Mallory has Down Syndrome, Autism and is prone to have occasional seizures, and, according to her parents, she’s had a slew of other health issues including two hip surgeries and dislocated knees in recent years.

Mallory and more than 200 other kids took part in the 8th Annual Surfers Healing event in Ocean City this week, and for these kids and their families, it’s more than just a day at the beach, it can be a joyous life changing moment, and a memory that these families will cherish forever.

For the O’Keefes, that moment they captured of their daughter sitting on a longboard with a professional surfer paddling into a slow moving glassy wave and riding it to the shoreline, almost didn’t happen.

“She had something that we think was a seizure this morning and she fell and bumped her head,” said Marianne, “but the paramedics and the people at Surfers Healing were so helpful in trying to make sure that she was able to do it. I just can’t even describe what it means to see her ride that wave in.”

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