Grieving family to host a walkathon in Fremont

The tickets for the 10K walkathon will cost around $28 and the proceeds will go directly to the foundation.

Both father Tarun Pruthi and mother Sharmistha Chakraborty started the foundation as a way to keep their son’s legacy alive.

“And to help prevent families from dealing with the same pain that they are going through,” Annadita Sharma, Arunay Foundation social media manager, said.

The foundation’s short-term goal for the foundation is to ensure the county’s coastline beaches are equipped with life ring stations. Its long-term goals are to create an educational program for schools.

Arunay, his father and his 8-year-old brother were sitting on the sand at Cowell Ranch State Beach in Half Moon Bay in January 2021 when a rogue wave hit them and dragged them into the ocean. His father and brother made it out but the boy was too far out and was never found.

“We didn’t know that any of these things would happen, we didn’t know about rip currents, we didn’t know about sneaker waves,” Pruthi said.

It was just a warm day in January, we didn’t know there was a high surf advisory or there could be sneaker waves, he added.

The Arunay Foundation’s goals are to educate the community about the dangers at the beach.

So far, several life rings have been installed with warning signs along the Half Moon Bay coast and more are planned to be installed awaiting permits and funding.

Each station will be around 8 feet tall and consist of improved signs in several languages with warnings about sneaker waves. The stations will have a cabinet that holds a Glasdon life buoy and a 100-foot rope to throw to someone in emergencies. The buoys will help provide a lifeline against sneaker waves found in the Bay Area. Such waves run up on a beach farther than others and are strong enough to drag people into the ocean, leading to potential drowning deaths.

The two parents spoke at a San Mateo County Harbor District Board of Commissioners meeting in May 2021 and said people on the beach were trying to tie tents together to create a rope to throw because no life ring was available. Both believe that more effective signs would have made them more aware and careful.

“There wasn’t even anything to throw out to him like there are no floatation devices,” Pruthi said.

California beaches are notorious for being one of the worst in the world for sneaker waves because there are no islands between here and Hawaii and there is nothing to break the surf, he added.

These waves can wash more than 150 feet up the beach, according to the National Weather Service website.

Further down the road, Pruthi would like to develop an app that would give real-time surf condition notifications but is only in the conceptual phase.

Go to arunayfoundation.org for more details regarding the walkathon visit.

nick@smdailyjournal.com

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