Just wanted to give a shout out to fellow CDC member bass724(Jerry) from York county. He saw my post requesting rods and reels to help our Wildlife Club put on our Kidsfest today at our club property. He had about 40 combos that had been used for kids outreach at his church that they no longer needed. As luck would have it, he was coming through Columbia Friday night so I met him and picked up the reels.
Today we hosted children from 4 shelters in the Columbia area and made good use of the rods and reels.

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We had over 50 kids show up today and we welcomed them to our new facility.

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Our pond on the new property is nowhere near the size of the 100 acre pond on the site we lost, but it was clear all around and we had kids totally surrounding it.

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We cooked fish, fries, hushpuppies and also had hot dogs with chili and slaw. Several of the wives made deserts so no one went away hungry. We were blessed with good weather and suffered no hooks in the wrong places so it was a great day to be out.
These kids are ones that have been pulled out of abusive or dangerous situations so their privacy is paramount.

I will tell you though that one of the cutest little blond girls came along with her older (maybe 12 years) brother and really stuck out in my mind. She was so pretty and I noticed the close bond between her and her brother who watched her like a hawk. Both clinging to the only family they had and breaking my heart in the process.

I just hope that we provided some relief from what has to be a terrible time in their lives and pray that things work out for them.
And again, our heartfelt thanks to fellow member Jerry for helping out with the rods and reels.