About Us
Our Story
Jay Liesener was a free-spirited adventurous guy always chasing adrenaline. He was an artist with an outgoing personality. People were drawn to Jay as he had a gift for making everyone feel like they were his best friend. He had a sweet tooth, lots of tattoos, a brilliant mind, the biggest smile, and a very stubborn personality.
Jay broke his neck doing a back flip on a trampoline when he was 17. He was instantly paralyzed and would spend the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, striving to overcome his physical limitations. Jay modified a surfboard so he could support himself laying down and hung flyers around town seeking volunteers to help carry him into the water and push him into waves. With a few volunteers that first summer he worked out the kinks. But the next year things exploded with scores of volunteers named Team Surfgimp, complete with a logo, t-shirts, and stickers. Over the course of 15 years of surfing, Jay’s body got beat and bruised but his soul was never freer. Together Team Surfgimp surfed locally in Delaware and Maryland and eventually traveled to North Carolina, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and California. They were a close-knit family that took over the beach with kids, dogs, tables of food, music, fire pits and joyous mayhem. They even branched out to snorkeling and hang gliding with plans to tackle sky diving.
When his health declined in the fall of 2017, Jay's remarkable journey ended, surrounded by loved ones. A week before he passed, Jay and members of Team Surfgimp created a charitable foundation called Surfgimp Foundation to help people with disabilities live an active lifestyle and chase their dreams the way Jay did. A legacy so to speak. In its inaugural year, the Surfgimp Foundation raised sufficient funds to provide a single grant. Since then, the foundation has experienced exponential growth, enabling a multitude of limitless adventures. Just as Jay envisioned.
Why Surfgimp?
As Jay liked to say, "I was having a little fun while making a political statement at the same time. The idea was to take a derogatory term about disability and use it to challenge people's assumptions."
THANK YOU!
Whether you contribute a monetary donation, volunteer your time, or spread our mission through word-of-mouth, we thank you. We couldn't accomplish our goals without the help of supporters like you.
Limitless Adventures
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Your generous gift will help us fund our mission. Together, we can help those with disabilities experience their dreams.
Surfgimp Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. EIN: 82-3259873.
