60.0°,
Light Drizzle Fog/Mist Long Beach vigil for ‘a beloved teacher’
Candlelight vigils held for Daniel Bobis
“Mr. Bobis formed us a surf team — a lot of teachers had tried in the past to give us a team, but he was actually the one determined enough to do this for us, and he did everything to make sure that this team would work,” Long Beach High School student Lorena Garcia told a crowd of hundreds at a candlelight vigil for the team’s coach, Daniel Bobis, on Sunday, the day he went missing during a surfing trip in Indonesia.
More than 500 people turned out for the gathering at the boardwalk at Laurelton Boulevard — a beach where Bobis often surfs — including many of his students and fellow surfers.
“Clearly he’s a beloved teacher,” Long Beach High School Principal Dr. Gaurav Passi said at the gathering. “There’s a lot of worry, and yet a great deal of hope.”
The crowd held candles as relatives, friends and students spoke about the popular math teacher, who founded the school’s competitive surf team last year, the first of its kind in New York, and serves as an advisor to the surf club. They shared a moment of silence as many held back tears and prayed for his safe return. Then the crowd yelled in unison, “We love you, Danny!”
“They’re looking for Danny right now as we speak in Indonesia, and even though we are very, very far away physically, we are very, very close spiritually,” Rabbi Eli Goodman of the BACH Jewish Center told the crowd. “The fact that we are all here together as one is the most powerful, spiritual thing that we can possibly do.”
Additional vigils, including one on Tuesday at Temple Emanuel, continued to attract hundreds of supporters, and a number of impromptu fundraisers were announced this week to help Bobis’s family.
“The family is doing their best,” said close friend Christopher Fry, who performs in the popular hardcore band Cipher with Bobis. “I just think it’s amazing to see how many people’s lives he touched.”
The turnout on Sunday, friends said, was a testament to the indelible mark Bobis has made in Long Beach at just 32, and many spoke of the impact he has had on their lives. “My son was bullied, and Mr. Bobis took him under his wing,” said a mother of a Long Beach High student. “Now everything is good — he’s the most improved surfer. This was a kid who was afraid to go into the water.”
