The Hoaglands - Pete and Deena - operate Island Dolphin Care, a not-for-profit organization located in Key Largo, dedicated to dolphin therapy, an extraordinary science which very few of you have probably ever heard of. Joe is their 16-year-old son, an extraordinary young man with whom I have spent some of the better moments of the past year. It was Joe, in fact, who taught me how to throw a cast net.

Island Dolphin Care has fascinating roots, and its relevance to immigration and its appearance in this column will be explained in the coming paragraphs. Deena and Peter were living in Colorado when Joe began having serious health problems as a baby. After a hasty move to Florida as a result of Joe's health problems, the two witnessed a miraculous recovery after Joe began swimming with dolphins at the age of three. I know what many of you hard-core engineers and other science-types are saying: "Jose's going New Age on us again and he's about to start preaching this 'touchy-feely' stuff." Guys, I have witnessed this place in action, and what I am telling you about here has nothing to do with "freaky hippy stuff." This is simply one of those incredible phenomena which works, simply and clearly, whether we understand it fully or not. Read on, but do not judge until you have witnessed what I have witnessed.

If you see Joe today, you will witness a strapping, sun-tanned young man whose love for the outdoors, lobstering, and fishing would leave you with no suspicion that the Hoaglands' move to Florida was triggered by the dramatic heart problems he faced as a baby. Deena and Pete first went to Dolphins Plus in Key Largo after Joe had suffered a stroke during his third open-heart surgery. Their hope was that the dolphins might motivate Joe to use the left side of his body since he had not responded well to the traditional therapies: physical, occupational, and speech.

Joe began to progress both physically and psychologically with the dolphins, forever changing the course of the Hoagland family's destiny. As his muscle tone strengthened and his flexibility increased, Joe's self-esteem blossomed, and his remarkable bond began with "Fonzie" (who is still a part of the Island Dolphin Care team). Deena then came to the conclusion that if Joe could prosper so well with the dolphins, there were many other children who might do the same thing. Deena (with a master's degree in clinical social work) and Peter (General Manager of the facility and an active member of a variety of conservation and marine mammal groups in the Florida Keys) decided to share the personal miracle they witnessed in Joe with as many families as possible.

Today, the success of Island Dolphin Care has been broadcast and reported in almost every major television program, newspaper, and media venue in the world, including:

• ABC Primetime Live
  
• ESPN
  
• King Television
  
• The Discovery Channel
  
• Animal Planet
  
• CNN
  
• National Geographic Today
  
• The Oxygen Network
  
• ABC Discovery Health
  
• The Daily Telegraph
  
• National Geographic World Kids Magazine
  
• The Miami Herald
  
• Good Housekeeping
  

And what about the immigrant part? Through its international internship programs, Island Dolphin Care offers the opportunity for international students to participate in unique, one-on-one educational exchanges designed to give them dolphin rehab training experience, something no other facility has implemented with the care, dedication, and clinical focus that Deena has personally implemented. Attracting international interns from across the globe, Island Dolphin Care is, perhaps, one of the greatest ambassadors of U.S. alternative therapies, promoting this remarkable healing symbiosis between these extraordinary creatures and children experiencing a dramatic variety of health problems ranging from autism to terminal cancer as well as other disabilities. Finally, in the wake of a still-recovering U.S. economy, Island Dolphin Care is an important part of the Florida Keys' economic infrastructure in that it attracts families from all over the world to travel here with their children, saving up all year for several weeks of therapy and a family vacation. In the cases of some of the most severely disabled kids, the annual pilgrimage to 31 Corrine Place is for the simple reward of the annual smile in an otherwise blank face of a child who cannot open up to a world except through the squeaks and clicks of Fonzie or one of the other dolphins who, through reasons unexplained, can penetrate the otherwise impenetrable wall existing in the child.

I know the impact and power, as well as the global reach, of what the Hoaglands have done at Island Dolphin Care through both the blessing of Joe's presence on a rainy afternoon as we watch some dumb show on TV and through the tears on the faces of everyone quietly watching a little girl come to life after only a few minutes in the water with these creatures. Until you see the face of a father, mother, brother and sister who have never before seen their little daughter or sister laugh, you cannot fully understand the power, the magic, and the inexplicable reward being given through the gift of this interspecies interaction.

I encourage you to visit www.islanddolphincare.org. I further encourage you to do as my family has done, and make a donation to the organization because they are in the process of expanding to enhance their outreach to be able to touch the lives of many more children, including those who do not come from abroad, but who are right here in Florida and do not have the means to come and pay for the conventional programs. (Island Dolphin Care already works extensively with a variety of organizations to provide its rehabilitation to those who could not otherwise financially afford such services.)

Finally, below, without any commentary, I give you the pictures of a little German girl named Lotta. Deena had told me about Lotta time and again and shown me her scrapbook. I don't think one can add a whole lot to these pictures except to tell you that Lotta is one of those who "comes alive" annually when her family comes from Germany so that the little girl can swim with the dolphins. Each year there are tears, astonishment, and a sense of awe and wonder at what transpires in the water, before little Lotta shuts down again and returns to her private world.

May your weekend be blessed, and the next time you wonder what's really going on out there, take comfort in the fact that there is so much that we do not understand. (;