{"id":41490,"date":"2013-05-03T12:53:48","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T19:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=41490"},"modified":"2013-05-03T12:54:59","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T19:54:59","slug":"joel-parko-gets-schooled-for-surfaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/?p=41490","title":{"rendered":"Joel Parko Gets Schooled For Surfaid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/65348026\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>ASP World Champ <strong>Joel Parkinson <\/strong>is hitting up school kids with the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.surfaidinternational.org\/\">Surfaid<\/a><\/strong> message as the organizations newest schools program ambassador.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Parkinson, 32, addressed an assembly of enthralled students [at Sydney&#8217;s Barrenjoey High] before joining a classroom group for a SurfAid lesson on geography. \u2018Parko\u2019 was the first at his table to find Bali on the map. \u201cI used to love geography \u2013 it was my favorite subject,\u201d he said. . . Parkinson said he was stoked when SurfAid asked him to be an ambassador. \u201cIt&#8217;s a huge honor, especially for something that does so much good. It was a no-brainer for me to jump on board. I want to raise awareness around the world as much as I can and show the world what SurfAid do.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For the official word from Surfaid, follow the jump.<!--more-->World&#8217;s best surfer goes back to school<\/p>\n<p>Current ASP World Surfing Champion Joel Parkinson swapped his surfboard for books when he visited Barrenjoey High, on Sydney\u2019s northern beaches, as the newest ambassador for the SurfAid Schools Program.<\/p>\n<p>Parkinson, 32, addressed an assembly of enthralled students before joining a classroom group for a SurfAid lesson on geography. \u2018Parko\u2019 was the first at his table to find Bali on the map. \u201cI used to love geography \u2013 it was my favorite subject,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Parkinson said he was stoked when SurfAid asked him to be an ambassador. \u201cIt&#8217;s a huge honor, especially for something that does so much good. It was a no-brainer for me to jump on board. I want to raise awareness around the world as much as I can and show the world what SurfAid do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The SurfAid Schools Program, which is supported by Billabong, is an international education program that aims to develop global citizenship values. It uses the humanitarian challenges and achievements of non-profit organization SurfAid as an educational example for action.<\/p>\n<p>Pioneered at Barrenjoey High in 2007, the SurfAid Schools program has more than 2,000 schools registered in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The schools can access free, online educational material with subjects ranging from health and economics to history and geography.<\/p>\n<p>surfaidschools.org<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the best things about the program is the way it engages both teachers and students on important global issues,\u201d SurfAid Schools Program Manager Milton Brown said.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the students, Brown said: \u201cThe real message behind this program is about being a good global citizen, about how you perceive the world, and about what contributions you are going to make to the world as you move forward. That is the choice that you will need to make as individuals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s about making you think about what it means to really help other people in an educated and meaningful sort of way, not in a self-pitying or sad kind of way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Brown said it was a privilege to share the stage with Parkinson. \u201cTo honor him as world champion first of all, and also to accept him as an ambassador for the SurfAid Schools Program is really a great honor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving one of the most popular and recognizable surfing athletes in your corner only enhances the program\u2019s buy-in and popularity. Joel is a terrific role model for young students and we greatly appreciate his endorsement,&#8221; Brown said.<\/p>\n<p>Parko said he especially enjoyed the interaction with the students where they asked questions ranging from why it\u2019s important to support SurfAid to who is the most annoying surfer on the ASP World Tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe students\u2019 questions were really refreshing &#8211; totally open and honest, no filters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>ABOUT SURFAID<\/p>\n<p>The mission of SurfAid, a non-profit humanitarian organization, is to improve the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of people living in isolated regions connected to us through surfing.<\/p>\n<p>SurfAid\u2019s health programs involve education in nutrition, hygiene, healthy environments and disease prevention &#8211; including mosquito net distribution.<\/p>\n<p>SurfAid has built an award-winning capacity in emergency preparedness and has delivered five emergency response programs following major disasters, including the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami and the October 2010 Mentawai tsunami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASP World Champ Joel Parkinson is hitting up school kids with the Surfaid message as the organizations newest schools program ambassador. Parkinson, 32, addressed an assembly of enthralled students [at Sydney&#8217;s Barrenjoey High] before joining a classroom group for a SurfAid lesson on geography. \u2018Parko\u2019 was the first at his table to find Bali on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,6,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41491,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41490\/revisions\/41491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boardistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}