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Local anglers rescue big day for disabled children

By Rick Walter

Tacoma Weekly
rwalter@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: June 19, 2008

Saving the day can be a frantic and frustrating exercise, but somebody’s got to do it.

Behind a flurry of activity over the past few days, The Puget Sound Anglers Gig Harbor Chapter has been that somebody, and the cause has been a fishing event for disabled children.

The local anglers have been participating in running Cast for Kids programs, including one event for about 500 able-bodied participants back in May of this year at American Lake. Cast for Kids is an organization that provides a day of fun on the water to youth who might not otherwise get that experience. Children’s groups from the local area are supplied with fishing rods, reels, a T-shirt, hat and tackle box.

They are escorted onto a motorized boat with a volunteer experienced angler (guide) who teaches the children the proper techniques of fishing and the importance of natural resources. They all then return from their morning fishing excursion for a barbecue lunch and an awards ceremony.

In addition to the May event, a second Cast For Kids event has been run in the past just for disabled children. This year, the chapter that had been hosting the second event was unable to do so and, at the last minute, Jim Owens, executive director of Cast for Kids, reached out to the Gig Harbor chapter to do that job, according to Rich Silva, president of the chapter.

Silva and other members of the chapter have been scrambling to get things done, the most critical task being to secure a location from which the 20-something boats that will carry the kids could launch. They were able to secure a launch from Metro Parks on Thea Foss Waterway on June 16. The event will now be able to come off near the end of July.

“It’s great,” said Silva. “These children, who otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to experience the sport of fishing or to learn about fish as a natural resource, now they can.”

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