By Fred Swegles
The Orange County Register (California)
Copyright 2006 The Orange County Register
All Rights Reserved
After witnessing the devastation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on Louisiana nearly a year ago, James Birdsell wondered what one person could do to help local communities rebuild.
He made some calls, conferred with some uniquely talented friends, then spent 2½ months rounding up support for his idea.
Friday, the 45-year-old lifeguard from San Clemente was ready. He and a handful of buddies — all of them premier watermen — took off from Dana Point Harbor, before dawn, to paddle 50 miles to La Jolla in one day.
Starting out at 4:50 a.m., six of them rowed three dories from Dana Point to San Clemente in the dark. They beached the dories at Cotton’s Point at dawn, swam out to a waiting outrigger canoe, paddled it to Carlsbad and then changed watercraft: They paddled individual surf skis.
At Torrey Pines, the trekkers switched to standup paddleboards, reaching their destination at La Jolla Cove just a little over nine hours after their departure.
The goal: To raise $30,000 to build a playground in one of the hurricane-ravaged communities around New Orleans.
By Friday afternoon, Birdsell said that the “Lifeguards for Louisiana” fund had reached $25,000. Monday, he reported that more had come in over the weekend. “Anything else that we get,” he said, “just adds to the size of or the amount of equipment we can put into the playground.”
He works as a lifeguard for both the San Diego Fire Rescue Lifeguard Department and for San Clemente State Beach. Last summer, after Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana, Birdsell was part of a lifeguard swift-water rescue team that was sent to the disaster zone.
“We were there for 18 days,” Birdsell said. “It did have an effect on me. It always felt strange to leave after 18 days and just kind of leave them how they were. You don’t want to leave anyone in need of assistance or rescue. So this is just a small symbol of saying that we’re coming back.”
Birdsell organized the fund drive through . He solicited corporate donations, asked friends to provide escort boats and invited friends Mitch Kahn, Rob Pelkey, Rob Rojas, Chuck Patterson, Jay Butki, Scott Diederich and Kevin Wakashige to join him.
“They’re all lifeguards and firefighter friends,” Birdsell said. They often compete on dories, paddleboards and surf skis. For one day, they decided to team up on those watercraft and embark on a one-of-a-kind journey.
“I’m really honored to be a part of this,” said Rojas, a 32-year-old fish and game warden from San Clemente.
“It was nice,” said Patterson, a 37-year-old lifeguard from Dana Point, “because it wasn’t a competition. And yet you are with some of the best watermen athletes out there. When we say we’re just ‘taking a cruise,’ we’re still throwing it down there at a pretty heavy notch.”
Diederich, a Laguna Beach lifeguard lieutenant, did the first two legs of the journey, then hopped into a boat and returned the loaned outrigger canoe to Oceanside to leave there for a Saturday competition.
Wakashige, who works with Birdsell in San Diego as a lifeguard, teamed up with Butki, a rescue boat captain and paramedic for L.A. County, to complete the journey begun by Diederich.
“They needed manpower, and they asked for my back and I loaned it,” Butki, 44, grinned. The four other athletes -- Pelkey, Patterson, Kahn and Birdsell -- each paddled the entire 50 miles.
Said Pelkey, a 38-year-old lifeguard/paramedic for L.A. County who resides in Dana Point: “This is our playground. This is what we do on a daily basis. For us to be able to do it and raise money for a playground would just be a bonus.”
Kahn, an Orange County Fire Authority captain and paramedic from San Clemente, said he has competed in long-distance events on all types of watercraft but never has used them all on a single journey like this. “You couldn’t have asked for better conditions,” he said. The ocean was calm, and there was almost no wind.
“We got done two hours quicker than we thought we would,” Kahn said.
He credited Birdsell with bringing the idea to life: “We got to do the fun part. He did the hard part, getting out and getting all the sponsors.”
Birdsell said that two biotech companies in San Diego were the biggest sponsors but wanted to remain anonymous. He thanked Frank and Sylvia Boisseranc from San Clemente, Gary Larson from Hobie Sports and Dan and Carolyn Pelkey of Capistrano Beach for providing support boats, and Doreen Ingino of San Clemente for documenting the event with her camera from the boats.
Birdsell said he isn’t sure yet where the playground will be, around New Orleans, but he is anxious to see it offer kids a new place to play. “With all the people that have been displaced -- all the people that have had their lives turned upside down -- we’ll give them a playground to forget about it for a little while.”
Jeff Rosene, director of development for Kids Around the World, said this is one of about 30 projects the Illinois-based nonprofit organization has in the works.
He was asked if there is anything different about this one. “Having one man do all this and raise all the funds and be responsible for a team,” Rosene said, is just amazing.”
Two ways to help
Visit or send a check to P.O. Box 515, San Clemente 92674, c/o James Birdsell. Make the check out to Kids Around the World. Whether you donate by check or online, note that it’s for “Lifeguards for Louisiana.”