Red Cross Starts Fund to Memorialize Surfer

The American Red Cross has set up a memorial fund to honor a young Thousand Oaks volunteer who died while surfing in Hawaii recently.

About 150 people gathered at the south jetty of the Ventura marina Friday afternoon to attend a memorial service for Don Solomon, 25, who died Dec. 23 in a surfing accident at Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii.

After a brief ceremony on the jetty, a group of surfers scattered Solomon’s ashes into the ocean.

“Donny was a good kid,” said Mike Goth of the Ventura County chapter of the American Red Cross. “He was interested in getting people of his generation involved in the Red Cross.

“It was sad,” Goth said describing the memorial service. “But surfing was the love of Donny. The surfers were celebrating his enthusiasm for life.”

Solomon was a professional surfer who had visited Red Cross chapters all over the world promoting goodwill among them, Goth said. The memorial fund will help continue the sort of volunteer work he was doing with the Red Cross.

Solomon recently organized a fund-raising event for Hawaii’s Red Cross chapter, said Brian Bolton, executive director of the Ventura County chapter.

Solomon was also planning a special fund-raiser for the Ventura County chapter in which sports memorabilia, including a surfboard signed by world-class surfers, were to be sold at an auction. Solomon had appeared on MTV for an interview about the event and his involvement with the Red Cross.

Solomon began working with the Red Cross after seeing volunteers in action during Hurricane Iniki in Hawaii and during the La Conchita landslide, Bolton said.

“Because of Don’s enthusiasm, several projects are being developed to involve Don’s generation on the Red Cross team,” Bolton said. “We are continuing to pursue his ideas in his memory.”

Donations can be sent to the Don Solomon Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 5850, Ventura, CA 93005.