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Fighting the Tide of City Life For 13th Year, D.C. Bar Owner Gives Neighborhood Kids a Beach Break

August 6, 2009
Featured in The Washington Post
By: Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 6, 2009

On a motorboat off the Delaware coast, gusts of wind sent Shanice Brown's twists of hair flying and Brian Douglas's T-shirt flapping. After years of going to the beach with Bill Duggan and his three sons, Brian is comfortable at the wheel and Shanice knows how to pull a crab trap from the water.

"Want to go exploring?" Jesse Duggan, 22, asked as they neared an island.

"Yeah!" the teenagers said, clambering out onto the wet sand.

Every summer, the Duggans take dozens of neighborhood children to the Delaware shore, a generous impulse that in 13 years has become a tradition. The beach makes street-tough kids drop their defenses and act like children again, playing in the waves, reaching for a grown-up's hand.

Bill Duggan stays in touch with many of them after they're too old to go with the big,
chaotic group. He and two of his sons took six teenage cousins to the shore recently for a couple of days of water-gun fights, body surfing, crabbing and occasionally a serious conversation. He said he hopes that, ultimately, what he's doing might make a difference. Read the full story