At 16 years old, Scotts Valley’s Tomas Dauksa is already thinking like an entrepreneur, but his latest business venture began with a problem he noticed at a local swimming pool.
Last summer, while working as a lifeguard at Mount Hermon Conference Center in Felton, Dauksa noticed a steady stream of children leaving the pool with one thing in common: sunburns.
“I saw that there were all these kids who kept getting sunburned at our local pool,” Dauksa said. “I had to do something about it.”
His answer was to write a children’s book.
That idea became “The Sun Is Fun… With Sunscreen!”, the first book in Dauksa’s “Growing Healthy with Luca” collection, a series designed to help young children develop healthy habits through simple stories and engaging characters.
Dauksa, who is entering his junior year at Scotts Valley High School, has since expanded the collection to six books; three stories available in both English and Spanish. His books are primarily aimed at children ages 2 to 10, although Dauksa believes everyone can benefit from a reminder about healthy habits.
For Dauksa, the goal goes beyond teaching children to put on sunscreen, brush their teeth or develop other healthy routines. He wants children to understand that healthy choices can become something they choose for themselves rather than something adults simply tell them to do.
“Growing habits is not easy, but at the same time, some encouragement from something simple just like a little book might help them a lot,” he said. “I hope that kids, of course, learn that growing habits should be a fun thing. It doesn’t have to be something that your parents force you to do. It can be something that you choose to do.”
The idea appears to have resonated with at least one young audience.
After Dauksa sold his first book to a neighbor, she told him she was reading it to her grandsons every night, and that they loved it and laughed at the story.
“That made me feel so awesome,” Dauksa said. “It kept me going because I knew that I wasn’t just writing, but I was writing and making an impact.”
That response convinced him there was more to the project than simply publishing a book. Dauksa began thinking about ways his stories could reach children in places where healthy-habit information is already being shared.
“I want to connect with pediatric and dermatologist offices because then the kids would have a resource of a story rather than just a poster on the wall,” he said.
Sunscreen has been his most successful topic so far, but Dauksa has plenty of ideas for future books. He would like to write about hydration, handwashing, staying active, sleep and other habits that can help children develop healthy lifestyles.
When choosing topics, he researches guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, including recommendations for helping children establish healthy, active lifestyles from an early age.
The young author has also learned that writing a book is only part of the process. He used money he earned as a lifeguard to pay for the various steps involved in publishing his books, with additional support from his parents, Linas and Asta Dauksa.
“We are very proud of our talented and entrepreneurial son,” his parents said. “It has been amazing to watch him turn his ideas into books that teach children healthy habits in a creative and fun way.”
Outside of his books, Dauksa is an active member of the Scotts Valley community. He attends Scotts Valley City Council meetings, participates in student government and serves as president of the school’s Pickleball Club.
His interest in entrepreneurship is also shaping his plans for the future. After graduating from Scotts Valley High School, Dauksa hopes to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or UC San Diego and study business administration.
For now, however, he is continuing to learn about business by doing it himself: writing, publishing and promoting his own books. He said the experience has already taught him lessons that extend well beyond the pages of his stories.
The “Growing Healthy with Luca” collection is available on Amazon by searching for “Tomas Dauksa.” The six-book collection includes three titles, with “The Sun Is Fun… With Sunscreen!” currently the best-selling title.
For Dauksa, what began with watching children get sunburned at a swimming pool has become an opportunity to encourage an entire generation to make healthier choices, one story at a time.
