FISH FIESTA BENEFITS TAVERNIER WOMAN’S WORK FOR CENTRAL AMERICAN YOUTH

Children from Casa Agua Azul surround Gail and Ted Gordon. Casa Agua Azul is a home for abused and abandoned children in Rio Dulce, Guatemala. CONTRIBUTED

An adventurous family sailing trip changed the course of Gail Gordon’s life. 

In 2007, while navigating their sailboat roughly halfway around the world, Gordon and her husband Ted and then-teenaged son Trevor found themselves in the hurricane-safe zone of Rio Dulce, Guatemala. “There I built relationships with people,” recalled Gordon.

After returning to the Keys in 2009 from the sailing voyage, Gordon’s son soon departed for college and the mother of one found herself struggling to fill a massive void in her life.

“My life had become very empty here, so I started leading mission trips with my friends to Guatemala,” explained Gordon.

During one of those trips, Gordon helped rebuild a fire-damaged home for abused and neglected children. “That was the turning point for me, that I saw such a great need,” said Gordon.

Fast forward to 2015, after a lot of hard work and relentless fundraising, Gordon’s charity, Blue Water Surrender, had raised enough money to purchase their own home in Guatemala for children in need. There are currently 10 children staying at the safe house, named Casa Agua Azul (Blue Water House). All of the children were sent by the Guatemalan court system and their stories are heartbreaking.

“The backgrounds that the children come from, they’re just horrific, abuse that no child should ever suffer,” said Gordon.

On Friday, April 21, at 6 p.m., Blue Water Surrender will host its seventh annual Children’s Home Fish Fiesta Benefit at Bud N’ Mary’s Marina. All of the money raised goes to support the children in Guatemala.

“This will be the first one since COVID, so I’m kind of excited and nervous at the same time,” said Gordon of the upcoming fundraiser. She expects 100 to 150 people to attend.

“We rely on the generosity of people’s hearts. The Florida Keys community has been extremely generous,” said Gordon.

The community has also turned out in force for Gordon’s many faith-based missions to Guatemala. Upper Keys teens, Malia and Cash Alana, recently accompanied Gordon’s group to the Central American country and say the trip was transformative.

“I know that growing up you’re always told ‘Kids in Africa don’t have water, so you should be grateful,’ or whatever, but until you see it, it doesn’t really emotionally click,” said 16-year-old Malia. 

“We would help work on a mission house. We would stain wood and we would paint and stuff,” added 14-year-old Cash, describing some of the volunteer work he did.

Both teens plan to return to Guatemala in July for another mission, this time to help plant trees, as part of an ongoing sustainability project by Blue Water Surrender.

“We’ve already planted over a hundred fruit trees, so when they mature we will have something to share with our community, something to sell, something to trade and the children can learn a skill that is useful to them in the environment they’re going to go back to,” explained Gordon.

Blue Water Surrender recently purchased some farmland in Guatemala, not far from Casa Agua Azul. They plan to remodel a house on the property to serve as the mission house for volunteers. 

Every year, Gordon, her husband and volunteers also load up their sailboat with supplies and make the five-day sail to Guatemala. 

On the morning of this interview, Gordon had just flown back from Central America after spending three months there, making sure everything was running smoothly at the children’s home.

As if she doesn’t have enough on her plate, Gordon has also written a book titled “A Trail of The Holy Spirit,” soon to be released on Amazon.

Tickets for the Blue Water Surrender Children’s Home Fish Fiesta Benefit at Bud N’ Mary’s are at bluewater surrender.charity proud.org. Advance tickets are required. Tickets will not be sold at the door or after April 14. There will be a buffet dinner, silent auction, live music and a raffle. All proceeds will go to the Tavernier non-profit supporting Casa Agua Azul.

“We invite anyone that has a heart for children to come and see what we’re doing and be a part of it. We cannot do it alone. What do they say? ‘It takes a village to raise a child,'” said Gordon.

Kellie Butler Farrell is a journalist who calls Islamorada home. Kellie spent two decades in television news and also taught journalism at Barry University in Miami and Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She loves being outside, whether spending time on the water or zipping down the Old Highway on her electric bike, Kellie is always soaking up the island lifestyle. Kellie and her husband own an electric bike rental company, Keys Ebikes.