Mike Castro is recognized by the NGO Aloha Award, which honors people who inspire others.

This work has been carried out since 2011 with the creation of the Cieneguita Surf School, a project that, in addition to encouraging the sport, seeks to keep children away from any activity that affects them and to help them grow up as young people with good values ​​and a positive contribution to society.

Castro, along with a group of people who wanted to see greater sporting growth in the region, joined together to found the Limón Educational Surf Sports Association in 2014, thus contributing more to sporting growth, but also linked to education.

After all this process, Mike decided to found a project that he wanted to make a very positive difference in the lives of young people in the Caribbean, the Waves and Smiles Foundation, a project that undoubtedly contributed greatly to continuing his fight to encourage sports but also seeks to work on cognitive activities to provide better young athletes who are educated and full of a clearer vision for their future, driven by philosophies proven in different NGOs around the world.

Thanks to all this work, the NGO Aloha Award, an organization in charge of rewarding people who inspire others, decided to award the Costa Rican.

Mike shared a little more about this award with us, and here's the interview:

How did you find out about this award and how did you aspire to receive it?

I learned about this contest thanks to a friend named Manuela. She and her husband Chris founded an NGO focused on Surf Therapy called Waves for Hope in Trinidad and Tobago. She nominated me to participate, and thanks to her, I was able to participate and then I won.

How long ago did you get it?

I received a call at the beginning of May to give me the good news that I had won the prize; that was 5 months ago.

Which organization gave it to you and what does it do?

The organization that is awarding me is an NGO called the Aloha Award. They are American and what they do is reward people who inspire others, based on their dedication, empathy, and social work in different communities.

What prize did you receive and what did you spend it on?

I was honored to be the winner of the 2022 Aloha Award, which included $10,000 and a trip to Fiji.

The funds were used to purchase a minibus which we use to transport our team, instructors, and children from the community. This allows us to continue providing mental health services and Surf Therapy in the communities of Cieneguita and Moín. In short, it's an incredible tool for creating many positive emotions in children and young people.

Furthermore, it recently helped me to take the core of the Costa Rican Surf Team and coaching staff to the Pan American Games in Panama, so this award is truly a blessing and I am extremely grateful for it.

“We found him through our nomination process for the award, where we have dozens of candidates. A five-judge panel selects the winner and the other finalists. We thoroughly investigate the nominees and potential winners, and through our judges' extensive contacts with people in different countries connected to surfing, we can verify their credentials and learn more about the candidates, in addition to, of course, interviewing them. Then, five finalists are chosen, and from these, the winner is selected. In 2022, that winner was Mike Castro, who is doing very important work and deserves the award. Of course, we will continue to support him in any way we can, and from now on, he is part of the Aloha Award. We hope to further support his Waves and Smiles program, which has been dedicated to helping children in his community, and we are very proud to recognize him,” stated Mark Hartmann, founder of the Aloha Award.

Mike is a technical assistant for the national surfing selection processes and recently completed his studies at the National University as a Sports Training Technician specializing in Surfing, a title he hopes to put to good use with his contribution to Costa Rican surfing.

Written by: Enrique Hernández