Being on a boat on a large body of water can weave its own kind of magic, and for those dealing with illness or other challenges, a day afloat can be a special kind of therapy.

Freedom Waters Foundation in Naples makes it possible for children and adults with life-threatening illnesses, veterans and active military, children and adults with special needs, at-risk children and others to enjoy therapeutic boat experiences for a few hours on local waterways.

Partnering with dozens of local private and commercial vessel owners, the organization and its community partners provide boat outings, free of charge, for those who may not otherwise have the opportunity to be on a boat, according to FWF Program Director Meredith Gavin.

“A lot of our participants don’t have access to a boat or wouldn’t normally be able to be on the water, so we are providing them that opportunity,” Gavin said. “We live on some of the best waterways in the entire world, and there’s a huge percentage of the population in our area that doesn’t have access to it. We’re able to kind of help bridge that gap and get kids and adults on the water.”

On a recent Saturday, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Naples-based Help a Diabetic Child sponsored a Freedom Waters excursion for about a dozen kids with Type 1 diabetes and their families on Pure Florida’s Double Sunshine, embarking from Tin City. With blue skies and sunshine in abundance, plus a fresh breeze—and even a frolicsome dolphin leaping through the water right alongside the boat—they were able to enjoy a day surrounded by others who know what it’s like to deal with a disease that requires almost constant monitoring and management.

For Pam Rivera and her 16-year-old daughter, Sabine, a junior at Naples High School who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes right before her 10th birthday, the cruise provided the chance to connect and compare notes with other kids and parents facing common challenges. She said they have taken part in other Freedom Waters cruises and always come away with a renewed sense of connection to others dealing with the demands of the disease.

“We get such joy out of getting out on the water and being with our people, with our tribe,” Rivera said. “The volunteers with Freedom Waters are always so kind, so giving of their time, just to make us feel comfortable for a couple of hours. We’re very grateful to be able to have those times where we just feel good with other people who understand.”

Sabine, who testified before Congress when she was 12 as a JDRF Children’s Congress delegate on support for diabetic research and lowering the cost of insulin, said the cruises offer the opportunity for her to help mentor younger “Type Ones,” as well.

“Now that I’m older I can talk to the other kids about what I’ve learned,” she said. “When I was first diagnosed, I didn’t know a lot of older kids with it who could share their experiences. Now I like being able to help younger kids—giving them advice on dealing with school, sports and other things that can be challenging when managing the disease.”

Another parent, Lynda Stevens, said the cruise was a first for her and her husband, Sean, and their daughters Bella and Adriana. Bella, who is 13, was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 6. Stevens said the outing gave her family the chance to compare experiences with others—and also just to laugh and relax. Like Pam Rivera, Stevens uses the word “tribe” to describe the families they have come to know in Naples.

“We’re like a tribe,” she said. “People I’ve met through JDRF are like family. We get to know each other’s families. We can ask each other ‘How are you dealing with this? Have you experienced this?’ The biggest thing is there’s no judgment; you can say anything. When you go into a situation like a Freedom Waters cruise where you have peers, you can talk to them as peers. It’s an outlet for the parents, the diabetics, and even for the siblings of the diabetics.”

Asked how she would describe the experience of her family’s first Freedom Waters outing, Stevens said the best part was being in a judgment-free environment. “It’s freedom, it’s independence, it’s no judgment,” she said. “Just being able to relax. It was really nice to be out on the water, enjoying the day.”

Shortly after boarding the Double Sunshine on the recent cruise, Jonathan Speck and his 6-year-old son, Milan, had to take a few minutes to monitor Milan’s blood sugar and eat a bit of lunch. Milan had been diagnosed just a few weeks before the mid-September excursion, and said he doesn’t feel like his life has changed that much.

“It has hardly changed at all,” Milan said matter-of-factly. “But I do know how to do my own finger prick.”

His father, who is a stone crabber in Everglades City, concurs. “We’re still early in this—but in all honesty, aside from needing extra time to count carbs, plan for timing of meals and monitoring his blood sugar, it doesn’t seem to have made a difference in how we live our lives,” he said. “Yes, this is a big thing to deal with, but we try to handle it like anything else.”

Speck acknowledged that they have been fortunate in the five weeks since Milan’s diagnosis not to have had any crises yet, with no extreme highs or lows in his blood sugar.

“So far it feels as if there are a lot worse things we could be dealing with,” Speck said. “We have nothing but gratitude to everyone who has been helping us learn how to deal with this.”

Like other parents on the cruise, Speck was grateful that Milan had the opportunity to be out on the water and to see other kids who are living with diabetes. Milan, who spends a lot of time outside with his dad and already loves stone crabbing, said he likes being out on the water. And what was his favorite part of the day?

“Seeing the dolphin jumping,” he said with a smile.

Freedom Waters Foundation was founded in 2006 by Debra Frenkel, a licensed clinical social worker and former chairperson of U.S. Sailing Disabled Sailing Championship. Co-founder John Weller, a yacht broker and six-time cancer survivor, was inspired to help start the organization because he understood the therapeutic properties of being on the water, FWF program director Gavin said.

“In a play on words, we call our cruises ‘Weller Day Boat Outings,’” she said. “Weller, for our co-founder, and well-er because that’s how we hope our participants feel when they’re out there on the water.”

Gavin said that individuals and other nonprofit organizations can reach out to arrange for a Freedom Waters cruise on private or commercial vessels, thanks to the many owners who volunteer them.

“Individuals and organizations can reach out through our website, freedomwaters.org, and we will try to schedule an outing for them that meets their needs,” Gavin said. “Some people are looking specifically for cruising, some for fishing, some might look for sailing, so we try to make the accommodations as best we can. And we love to partner with other nonprofits in town: Collaboration is key, so we partner with different agencies that contact us for boat outings, including the STARability Foundation and Collier County Public Schools’ special needs programs.”

In 2023, Gavin said, Freedom Waters is on track to serve 4,500 participants, after serving 3,800 in 2022 and 3,200 in 2021.

Harry Julian, owner of Pure Florida, one of Freedom Waters’ many nautical partners, said everyone in his company is proud to be part of the program.

“Debby Frenkel’s passion for what she’s doing is remarkable; she’s the anchor of that organization,” Julian said. “We’ve been fully invested in what they do since we started working with them in 2009. We accommodate somewhere around 2,000 people a year free of charge on our cruises. I’ve lived my entire life on the water, and it’s given so much back to me. I hope we can give that to some of these people.”

Julian said that after every Freedom Waters outing, he gets a letter of thanks from the organization, always with an anecdote or memento specific to that cruise. On one of the outings, he said, there was a young boy confined to a wheelchair whose parents said that it had been a transformative experience for him.

“The young man paints with a paintbrush held in his mouth,” Julian recalled, “and he sent us a painting he did of a dolphin with the Double Sunshine in the background. His parents said he worked on it for two days and that they had never seen him so engaged in an activity before. And that really touched home for me, that this had made a difference in this kid’s life. I had that painting until Hurricane Ian came through and flooded the office and took it away. That painting really quantified what the Freedom Waters mission is: to make a difference in people’s lives for the better.”

Freedom Waters Foundation will host one of its annual fundraising events, Comedy Night, on Oct. 12 at Finemark Bank near Waterside Shops. For additional information on Freedom Waters and its other programs, including adaptive sailing at Sugden Park and fishing tournaments for girls and boys, visit freedomwatersfoundation.org.