Martha’s Vineyard Community Services announced that long-distance paddleboarder Adam Nagler has completed his 1,000-mile trip and fundraiser.
Nagler, an endurance athlete and advocate for mental health, raised $62,329 for Community Services over the course of his trip.
In June, Nagler took off from the Little River Inlet in South Carolina. Nagler arrived on the shores of Aquinnah in August, and stopped for some rest before setting back out for his finish line at Three Mile Harbor in New York. He made it in early September.
In total, he traveled 1,000 miles over 69 days, alone on his paddleboard.
Nagler said that his trip was partly to raise money for Community Services, and partly to serve as a metaphor for the journey individuals with mental health issues face, battling through bad weather and unfavorable conditions.
“When I’m out on the water and the going gets unimaginably hard, I remind myself that I’ve got no choice but to get it done,” Nagler is quoted in a press release. “I can’t let anyone down, especially if they’re looking to me to push through, to serve as an example, in their time of crisis.”
Community Services reports that funds raised during the trip will support its mission to provide affordable and accessible mental health care and veterans’ outreach services to the Island community.
“Adam is such an inspiration. The destigmatization of mental illness is really key for him,” said Beth Folcarelli, chief executive officer of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.
This isn’t the first trip along the Eastern Seaboard Nagler has made. Last year, he completed his second long-distance journey to Nantucket. He set off with his paddleboard from Cape Hatteras Light in Buxton, N.C., and 600-plus miles and 30 days later, landed on Nantucket.
Aside from that trip, over the past 10 years, Nagler has clocked some 55,000 miles of training and expeditions on a paddleboard.
A video the MV Times produced when Nagler was on the Island:
