When a group of paddleboarders were forced to cut their 120-mile fundraiser for premature babies short due to treacherous weather and injuries, it would have been easy to give up. Instead, the organization, Cal’s Pals, reached out for help, and lifeguards all along the New Jersey coast stepped in to help fulfill the mission.
Tom Medvecky, who co-founded the nonprofit with his wife, Kelsey, said the 120-mile paddle from Cape May to Sandy Hook, was created to symbolize the challenging journey of babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) — specialized hospital units that provide critical care to premature and seriously ill infants.
“The point was to embody what NICU life is,” Medvecky said. “You have moments of despair; it’s an uphill fight that doesn’t seem possible at times. The paddle wasn’t supposed to be easy; we knew it may not have been able to be done. That was kind of the point.”
Cal’s Pals is named for the Medveckys’ son, Callan, who was born at just 26 weeks and is healthy today after spending 111 days in the NICU at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.
The organization raised over $12,000 this year to help ease the financial burden for families with children in NICUs.
“We just felt like we had to find a way to put good back in the universe, to keep giving,” Medvecky said.
At 4:40 a.m. on Saturday, July 19, seven paddlers set out from Cape May, beginning their 120-mile journey up the New Jersey coast.
Medvecky said conditions made the paddle immediately challenging, with high swells, strong winds, ripping currents, heavy rain and cold temperatures.
“We were cold. A bunch of the guys were shaking, shivering; pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did,” Medvecky said. “We had some guys getting seasick because we were just getting turned, tossed and turned out there. There were 4-foot swells at some points.”
Medvecky said because of the treacherous conditions, all of the paddlers were beaten down and completely fatigued, some even in seriously bad condition like Medvecky, who injured his shoulder after flipping. The group was forced to stop in Ocean City in the afternoon, with the Ocean City Beach Patrol helping them to shore.
“We had a few injuries. I myself got hurt right at North Wildwood when it kind of got dicey; my board flipped. A wave broke right on me, flipped me, so I grabbed my board and it just wrenched my shoulder backwards. And so I paddled from there. I made it to Ocean City, but by the time I got there, I really couldn’t lift my arm anymore.”
With scheduling conflicts in addition to numerous injuries among the paddlers, they could no longer complete the route that weekend and wouldn’t be able to resume in the near future.
Medvecky said they turned to the public and beach patrols for help, posting to their social media accounts requesting others help complete the route to Sandy Hook.
With both Tom and Kelsey Medvecky having worked on the Cape May Beach Patrol, they decided to ask fellow lifeguards to help spread the word.
“We put it out there, and I wasn’t really sure what the response would be,” Medvecky said. “But there’s guys that I’ve never met, guards that saw what we were doing, saw the plan and they sort of picked up that torch.”
Max Mittelman, a lieutenant with the Longport Beach Patrol, said that as soon as he learned the organization needed help completing the route, he and fellow lifeguard Sean Duffey were ready for the challenge.
Mittelman, who along with Duffey has experienced the tragic loss of a prematurely born child, said the two used the opportunity to share their stories and reflect on life. The pair paddled the entire length of Absecon Island, starting in Longport and finishing in Atlantic City.
“The conversation and the thought behind why we were doing it really helped motivate us to turn it into a meaningful experience,” Mittelman said. “We weren’t really thinking about how tired we were; we were thinking that we’ve got to do this for somebody else, not just ourselves.”
Mittelman said they were fortunate to have calm conditions for their paddle.
Gary Finnigan, a sergeant for the Sea Girt Beach Patrol, helped paddle the route in Monmouth County with his wife.
“We started in Manasquan and paddled all the way up to the Spring Lake area,” Finnigan said. “It’s a great cause, and it was an honor to help finish up the route.”
The following week, lifeguards from municipalities across the state took turns paddling the entire 120-mile route, enjoying good weather—unlike the crew that started in Cape May. The Medveckys posted a video montage on Cal’s Pals’ social media accounts to announce the route’s completion.
“We asked the community for help, and they showed up,” Medvecky said. “It was a beautiful thing; people saw what our group is doing, that we are for the betterment of families who are going through tough times and grabbed their boards and started paddling.”
Medvecky said there will be more Cal’s Pal’s fundraisers in the future, and donations can be made through their event website page posted on: www.paddlesignup.com.
