Miss Emma's Retreat
Emma was born with a walnut-sized knot on her chest.
At the time I was deep in my own struggles. I made a decision. I had to save myself to support her. She's fresh out of the gate — she'll need it. I checked myself into rehab.
On my first day in population I met a kid named Lawrence who had already graduated from Baylor with a theology degree, played baseball, earned a silver medal sailing in the Junior Olympics, and was a sailing instructor. A good kid for sure.
A few days later Emma was diagnosed with cancer. The next day in art class they instructed us to create a vision board of what we were going to do when we got out to pay it forward. Mine was obvious.
Start a sailing program. Take families sailing free of charge on Galveston Bay. Lawrence would teach me — I had no idea about sailing. A three-hour trip twenty years earlier was the extent of it. But I knew what I was going to do.
My vision board was created. Miss Emma's Retreat was born.
A few days later, on outpatient, I had lunch with my father for the first time since telling him of my troubles. He didn't fully understand, which made the reunion quiet. We sat at the bar. I was deep in thought about how to fund a sailing program — something I couldn't exactly bring up. If Dad had gotten wind of what I was thinking right then he would have lost his mind.
Luckily God stepped in.
The bartender walked up with a standard wine bucket and a bottle of wine. Inserted the bottle, added ice, and walked away. I instantly thought — that is not going to work. I turned to my dad and said watch this.
The bartender, now at the table, opened the bottle, poured two glasses and couldn't get it back into the ice. He wiggled and pushed and it just wouldn't go. He shrugged, let the bottle rest on top, and walked away.
The next glass will be warm, I thought.
There's a couple enjoying a nice bottle of wine and the next round is going to be hot. Not in my world. Most would want that experience to shine. Right then I grabbed a napkin and drew the first ever curved bottom beverage chiller.
Two thousand years after Nero, a Roman Emperor who invented the first wine bucket, the problem had been solved.
But bigger than that — I knew I had found a way to fund Miss Emma's Retreat.
In that moment Capitalism To Cause was born. And with it, a covenant. If you are going to give me another chance through a new invention, through this life — I will dedicate it to paying it forward. Every product I have ever invented and those to come will go toward making a difference. Because I get to invent, sail, and provide the greatest gift you can give another human being.
Service.
That was the beginning.
Miss Emma's Retreat provides free sailing experiences on Galveston Bay for families on a cancer journey. Not just the children. The whole family. Because cancer doesn't just happen to one person — it touches everyone around them.
For nine years, We have had to do everything under the sun to keep the sails up as taking products to market is hard and never goes as planned. It’s also one of the greatest opportunities one can have to create something that is theirs, share it with the world and to get paid for it. The Coolin Curve was supposed to fund the mission. It will. We are finalizing our latest launch, priced at where it should have been priced from the beginning. We had to learn that the hard way so we can do what we do.
That is why this site exists. We are selling direct. We will find our own customers through all that we touch through my inventions, philosophy, shirts, photo-books, or whatever we can create to make a difference.
Emma is now nine years old. She has been Wingman for Triumph Over Kids' Cancer for 8 years. She has sailed with us. She is the reason this exists and the proof that it works.
We have taken hundreds of families sailing and helped other charities raise funds along the way. Every Coolin Curve sold keeps the sails up.
Life is a celebration of everything we experience. When our customers raise their glasses to the miracles of life they are helping pay it forward to those learning the other side of it — just as monumental, maybe even more so.
So when your glasses are raised and your beverage is chilled, please know you're the wind that fills our sails.
This is what Capitalism To Cause looks like.
The Healing Power of Sailing
