About Us
My name is Leanne Woods. Along with my husband Brian and our
daughter Brianna, we have made this website in loving memory of Zac Woods, our
son and Brianna’s brother. All proceeds from this website go to the SZW
Scholarship fund. Our goal is to give back to the wonderful people in our
community who have cried with us, prayed with us and who have helped our family
in so many ways.
Our lives changed forever on the 16th of July,
2011. It was a beautiful sunny day. My husband and I were working in the yard
when Zac came and told us he was going out on his friend’s boat. He gave me a
hug and a kiss good bye. He said, "I’ll see you later."
and "I love you." Then he was gone. We never got to see
him again.
I work at a restaurant that overlooks the ocean
and I went to work at five that day. I am not sure what time it was
but I saw all kinds of lights from boats and helicopters over the ocean. I got
a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I dropped everything and called
Zac. No answer. I asked what was going on and someone told me there was a boat
going around in circles. One person was okay and one was missing. I had a
horrible premonition that it was Zac. The police came to my work to get me and
then the nightmare truly began.
There was a mechanical problem with the boat
that caused it to turn abruptly. Both my son and his friend were thrown
overboard. A kayaker saw Zac’s friend and helped him get to shore. Zac was
never spotted.
In the days that followed the Coast Guard, the
State Police, the harbor masters and anyone with a boat was out searching. The
official search had to stop after a week, but our locals never gave up.
Two weeks later, a local snorkeler went out to look
for Zac. He said “I am going to bring this boy back to his family.” He went to
the same place every one had searched over and over again. While he was out
there, he had a problem with his snorkel and decided to come back. But,
something compelled him to keep looking. A little further on, he found Zac.
This man brought our son home. It was the second blessing we had that week.
Zac’s daughter was born on July 27th. A part of him will live on as
we put him to rest.
Zac worked as a screen printer. He loved his
work. He was always trying to make something different, something that would
make him famous. One day he came home with a baseball hat with his signature on
the front and the rim torn off. He called it his rimless basketball hat. I told
him he was crazy, but he loved it. He also made a Frisbee with his signature on
it for his dog. His co-workers found the screen with his signature. They made
about two hundred and fifty yellow T shirts with Zac’s signature on the front.
We, as a family, gave them out to family and friends at the funeral. This
way they could have something from him. After the funeral all his friends and
family came to us to see if we could make sweatshirts etc. That’s when we
decided to make this web site.
I can’t tell you enough about how our community
wrapped their arms around our family over those terrible two weeks and continue
to do so, today. This is our way to pay it forward. Zac would want us to do
that. Honestly, Zac would be very happy that he did make a shirt everyone
wanted. I want to thank you for taking the time to read our story and thank you
for any purchases you make.
