Marlins for Mason Returns This Summer — Here’s How You Can Help

This summer, one of the causes closest to us is back — and it’s bigger than ever.

The 4th Annual Marlins for Mason tournament returns to Ocean City, Maryland on July 30, July 31, and August 1, 2026. It’s a non-profit marlin release tournament held in honor of Mighty Mason Prather, a seven-year-old member of the Ocean City fishing community living with Dravet Syndrome — a rare, catastrophic, and lifelong form of epilepsy with no cure.

What this small community of anglers has built is remarkable. In 2025 alone, Marlins for Mason donated $682,550 to the Dravet Syndrome Foundation — the largest single gift the Foundation has ever received. Over the past three years, the tournament has raised more than $1.5 million and independently funded five major research projects, including a gene-therapy study aimed at the root of the disease. Every dollar of every entry fee goes straight to research.

Mason’s family are close friends of ours, and supporting this fight has become part of who we are at Makara. Awareness is the first thing every rare-disease family asks for — so if you do one thing today, learn Mason’s story and pass it on.

There are three easy ways to help this year: donate, register a boat for the 2026 tournament, or simply share Mason’s story with someone who hasn’t heard it. You’ll find all of it, along with the full story, on our Giving Back page