- November 28, 2024
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Sometimes during his beach walks, Marcos Cabrera takes off his shoes and enjoys the water (Courtesy photos).
During one of his recent walks, he stopped for an ice cream.
Marcos Cabrera frequently walks the Granada Bridge with Ormond Strong.
"I believe this pelican was waiting for me to take a picture," from Marcos Cabrera's Facebook page.
Two-thirds of Ormond Strong's members are Vietnam veterans, and most of them aren't used to being in the public eye, according to founder Debbie Kruck-Forrester.
"At first they were all camera shy," she chuckled, "except for Marcos."
A Vietnam veteran and a member of Ormond Strong since it began in March 2015, Marcos Cabrera has taken it upon himself to be the group's "historian," documenting all their walks and events. While he gets many shots of other members of the group — over 5,000 this past year — it's clear he enjoys being in front of the camera just as much.
"Anytime someone new joins us, I take a picture of them," he said. "It's important to keep track of everyone, to keep a history of what we've been doing. And sometimes for me to be included, I just take a selfie."
While the skill of the selfie is usually only found in the younger generations, Kruck-Forrester said the 67-year-old is notorious for his selfie-taking.
"Since day one, he's been taking pictures," she laughed. "He'll just go on anything, get in the water, take any risks to get the angles."
Cabrera said he's been taking selfies for quite some time as a way to keep his family and friends from all over the world up to date on what he's doing.
"There was a time in my life that I took a lot of pictures all over the world," he said, "but after a while those pictures don't mean much if no one is in them. I started to include myself in the pictures to give them that meaning that was missing."
Even though a lot of his loved ones are far away, he still finds family within Ormond Strong.
"It's a family now," he said. "I've lived in many places of the world, and Ormond Beach is the best place."
Vietnam's first selfie?
Ormond Strong Founder Debbie Kruck-Forrester said one of her members might have taken the first selfie in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Tom Clausen took a picture of himself while riding in a van, in the side mirror.
