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George Saidah

By Jenn Director Knudsen

Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a father who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man and a father. Above all, the Dad of the Month is dedicated to his children. Rich or poor, famous or not, he shines as an example of what fathering is all about.

George Saidah tells an inspiring story of how he made his way to this country from a war-torn one and fulfilled all his boyhood dreams. To an American listener, his experiences certainly aren't commonplace, and the outcome is similar to many immigrant-made-good stories. But Saidah's has a twist.

A successful entrepreneur, father of two grown children, avid sailor and collector of fast, fancy cars, Saidah, 46, is now dedicating himself full time and a portion of his fortune to helping special-needs kids.

Saidah is from Beirut, Lebanon, the capital city blasted to bits during a 13-year civil war, from 1975 to 1989. "One week we went to school, and one week we stayed at home, hiding," Saidah says of himself and his two younger sisters, who lived in the city proper during the school year and in the breezy, nearby mountains during the scorching-hot and humid summer months.

"We were waiting for an invasion at any time," he says of the particularly scary year-and-a-half of nonstop warfare that preceded his family's escape to France.

Born to a Lebanese mother and a father of French descent, Saidah, then 16 years old (and French-Lebanese bilingual), and his family fled to Paris in 1985. They lived there for three years, returning to Beirut after the war. There, Saidah met his future wife.

But before the war intensified, when Saidah was only 10, his father got his own 18-foot sailboat and kept it moored at Kaslik, one of the country's only marinas. "We used to go and sail it all the time," to Turkey, Cyprus and other countries, Saidah recalls, adding the pair spent countless hours on the water, sailing in the beautiful, yet unpredictable, Mediterranean Sea.

"It was more sport than a nice cruise," he says. And that's exactly what he loved – and continues to love – about sailing, a passion that would define his philanthropic endeavor in midlife.

"Sailing is very interesting because it's at the same time very peaceful and exhilarating," he says. "It's kind of a fight with the elements" that often change on a dime, and the sport challenges the sailor's preparedness and ability to act quickly.

Sailing, Saidah says, is tough and requires "respect for and communion with nature."

While living in France, Saidah befriended at his school an equally avid sailor, Eric Bompard, whose dad had a sailboat. The teenage friends boarded a train every Wednesday afternoon for Lac-Quentin, 20 minutes west of Paris' Montparnasse neighborhood. There they sailed the day away.

But that routine lasted only a few years. Soon, Saidah returned with his family to Lebanon and believed he'd never leave his native country again. He married a Lebanese woman, also of French descent, and at 24 years of age, the couple had their first child, Laurent, a son.

"As soon as I got my son, we came to the realization he was going to live in a country ruled by cheaters, liars, criminals most of his life," Saidah says.

Saidah had befriended via ham-radio communications a history professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. If the threesome could finance their journey to the United States, the professor would find them lodging.

With two suitcases, $330 and extremely limited English skills on hand, Saidah and his young family made their way to the Midwest. "We started from nothing to build a life," he says. "I worked long hours, I can tell you, to provide for the kids and the family. We lived on $15 a week with a kid in diapers."

Saidah's wife attended Indiana University classes while Saidah toted Laurent to the myriad jobs at homes and businesses Saidah got as an electrician. "My son would go with me all the time to [work] sites and just play," Saidah says.

Soon, Saidah became a state licensed electrician, then dabbled in computer repair, quickly segued to programming software and eventually started his first of three computer programming companies, Softronics. (In 2005, he sold his third company, STS Healthcare, now under a different name.)

Laurent, now 21, and sister Roxane, 17, now a high school senior, spoke only French and Lebanese at home, English at school and began Spanish instruction in elementary school. The siblings are now multilingual, and Laurent is studying informatics at Indiana University.

"We don't have the option not to succeed," Saidah says, reflecting on his and other immigrants' attitudes about scratching out a living in an adopted country.

"Nous operons sans filet de s袵rit竜 he says, lapsing into French. "We didn't operate with a safety net," he quickly translates.

Passion for Sailing Leads to Next Endeavor

Two years ago, Saidah reconnected with Bompard, the sailing buddy from Paris, who began in 2001 a nonprofit organization called Au Cœur des Voiles, or "Heart of Sailing," in English. Its mission is to introduce special-needs children to sailing.

Soon thereafter, Saidah took his cousin, who is schizophrenic, aboard a sailboat. After observing Emile's reaction to the experience, Saidah decided he needed to replicate the program for cognitively impaired children in the States.

Saidah says, like so many boys, he, too, wanted fast cars and oodles of money. At 40, Saidah had a 9,000-square-foot garage in which he now keeps motorcycles, three CrisCrafts sailboats and 40 cars – 14 of them he's restored to perfect condition – including Porsches, BMWs, MGs and Alfa Romeos. "You get to a point when you look at all this and then say, 'Then what?'" Saidah says.

Last June, the "what" for Saidah was a domestic Heart of Sailing. It is the only program of its kind in this country.

Saidah, now founder and executive director of Heart of Sailing, is at a loss to articulate what it is about sailing and special-needs children that go so well together. Maybe, he speculates, it is the combined feelings of freedom, wind, calm and performing tasks as a team.

"I cannot put it in words," he says. "But if you see the kids' faces when they take the wheel, for example. Their faces light up. That is an experience I cannot describe. That by itself is worth a million dollars."

"Alternative forms of therapy are widely accepted now as extremely beneficial for children with special needs," says Amber Burton Small, Heart of Sailing's program director and an Indianapolis resident. "People are familiar with other forms of alternative therapy, such as music, art and animal therapy. Heart of Sailing expands upon this concept."

Saidah participates in every daylong sailing excursion – from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. – that leaves from Lake Monroe, accessible from Bloomington. Up to 12 children with autism, bipolar disorder, Down syndrome, schizophrenia and other cognitive impairments can participate, along with their caregivers – free of charge. Saidah funds the program – he put $150,000 of his own money toward Heart of Sailing's recent maiden voyage. A Daysail would be about $300 per participant.

As long as the child can follow instructions, keep himself and others safe and demonstrate a basic understanding of their responsibilities, they are eligible to participate in a Daysail.

Before boarding, the kids learn a few key skills and while aboard, they even get to commandeer the boat. The kids leave their Daysail with a sailor's cap, book about the journey (Sailing Adventure Handbook that Saidah wrote), certificate, a full belly and other goodies – many provided by sponsors Saidah has drummed up – in hand.

Carla McGee, 47, a family nurse practitioner in Bloomington, took aboard son Trevor Nixon, 15, who suffers developmental and cognitive delays; he cannot speak. McGee says her son loves boats, the water and outdoors and believed he'd love a Daysail.

"He did tremendously" as did the other kids, McGee says. "It is incredible watching these children enjoy and participate in something that probably normally they would not be able to," she says. "I think that Trevor felt incredibly happy, free with the wind blowing in his hair, sail swaying and waves gently rocking the boat, secure with lifejacket and Mom nearby (and [the] captain, of course)."

Michelle Shank's 10-year-old autistic son, Andrew, also went on a Daysail. "He has his certificate framed and hanging in his room along with his hat and medal," Shank says. "Andrew remembers every child's name that he met that day. It was a great social event for him."

Future of Heart of Sailing

Saidah plans to expand his program to multiple U.S. ports, whether in landlocked locales like the Midwest or on coastal ports. And soon he will procure a French-made 49-foot catamaran for local use.

"I think George's experience as an immigrant has helped him relate to our participants," Small, the program director, says. "He, too, at one time, struggled in an unfamiliar place – he didn't speak English very well and was uncomfortable trying to fit in to a new society that was very different from the one he was used to."

Saidah is very excited about expanding Heart of Sailing, for the special kids' sake. "I am not a salesman; there is nothing I can say to translate how they feel," Saidah says of his Daysail sailors and of Trevor, in particular. "But the look on [Trevor's] face. His eyes. Comprehending everything. Steering the boat himself. It was incredible."