- April 26, 2024
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Caleb Struble, center, receives a warm welcome from his fellow Flagler Beach lifeguards. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Caleb Struble arrives in style at Tortugas Florida Kitchen & Bar. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The lifeguards take a selfie with Caleb. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Family and friends get ready to ride to Tortugas Florida Kitchen & Bar: Byron and Mike Struble, cousin Cayla White, Caleb and Betty Struble, Beth and Joel Boyles and their son, Daxon. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Caleb receives a warm welcome on his arrival at Tortugas Florida Kitchen & Bar. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mike Denning, left, co-owner of Elegant Limousines, has the family's ride ready to go. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Struble family: Mike and Betty on each end with sons Caleb and Byron and niece Cayla White. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Caleb talks to Flagler County Sheriff deputies and Flagler Beach police officers. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Caleb Struble was surprised by the homecoming celebration. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air limousine is one of a handful left in the country. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Community members held up signs and greeted Caleb along the way on SR 100 and Ocean Shore Boulevard in Flagler Beach. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Celebrants hold up signs and take video as the Struble family arrives at Tortugas Florida Kitchen & Bar. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Caleb Struble was told by his parents on the morning of March 4 that the family was heading to Winn Dixie. He thought, “That’s weird.”
Instead, a community conveyed its love and support for the lifeguard who has been recovering the past seven months from a spinal injury he suffered July 19 when he dove into a shallow sandbar during lifeguard practice.
Caleb, a high school senior, fractured the C5 and C6 vertebrae. He had been rehabbing at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta since August. He returned home Feb. 23. On March 4, the community turned out to give him a real homecoming.
The family did go to Winn-Dixie at the Flagler Regional Plaza where they got into a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air limousine and then rode in a police procession, led by the Flagler Beach Police Department, over the Flagler Beach bridge, down Moody Boulevard and Ocean Shore Boulevard to Tortugas Florida Kitchen & Bar where friends and community members joined the family for a celebration.
Along the way, community members waved and held up signs welcoming Caleb home.
“He doesn’t like a lot of attention,” said Caleb’s mother, Betty Struble.
But he was thrilled to see his fellow lifeguards waiting for him when the limo arrived at Tortugas. He used a walker to walk over to the lifeguards and give and receive hugs.
“It feels great,” he said. “I haven’t seen a lot of these people for the past seven, eight months. So, it’s great to see everybody.”
Caleb has returned to Matanzas High School and plans to walk across the stage at graduation.
His parents, Mike and Betty, didn’t tell him or younger brother Byron about the plans for the day.
“It was just, ‘We got to go to Winn Dixie.’ And I’m thinking, ‘That’s a little weird,’” he said. “Then we saw everything that’s going on.”
Betty said Caleb has been positive since day 1, even when he couldn’t move his arms or legs.
“He’s a pretty positive spirit,” said Mike, who stayed with Caleb in Atlanta during his entire stay. “In the beginning, it was tough; he couldn’t move anything. After three or four weeks his arms started coming back. His legs were slower. He knew he had to work. Any down time in his schedule, he went to the gym to work with the therapist.”
Mike Struble, a chiropractor, has had to close his office in Palm Coast while he was in Atlanta.
“We're trying to get the office opened again and his school and therapy situated,” Mike said.
“My main goal, of course, is to get back on the beach. But little goals? Next, is to use crutches, then moving on to not using any equipment. It would be great to be a lifeguard again and get back on the tower. Even if I’m not at that point yet, even being in the headquarters, just to help out.”
CALEB STRUBLE
Caleb said the turning point in his rehab occurred early in his physical therapy.
“About the second day in therapy with my (physical therapist) Brian Tanner, I started moving my adductors (muscles in the thigh), and since then things have taken off,” he said.
Mike said that when Caleb left Shepherd Center he was still using a wheelchair most of the time. Now he’s walking 80% of the time with a walker. Caleb said he is using a wheelchair at school because it is easier for him to move around at this point.
“My main goal, of course, is to get back on the beach,” he said. “But little goals? Next, is to use crutches, then moving on to not using any equipment.
“It would be great to be a lifeguard again and get back on the tower,” he said. “Even if I’m not at that point yet, even being in the headquarters, just to help out.”
Getting back to school has given him a sense of normalcy, he said.
“It was awesome, seeing all the teachers and classmates I’d been missing for a while,” he said. “Walking and prom and graduation are definitely going to be happening.”
