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Charity Event - KIDS Tackle-A-Fish


Dee

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Hi All,

I have been speaking to Angus, and I have decided to put the below to the AFO members.

First of all, for the people that don’t know me, I am an administrator on www.fishingaustralia.com.au and a keen fisho. I currently work in Admin, and on a volunteer bases I work with mentally and/or physically disabled kids, taking them on camps and day rec activities. These special kids have disabilities such as Down Syndrome, cerabyl Palsy, epilepsy, Autism, Depression, ADD/ADHD and many others. The kids are low-medium needs, which means, that most kids can communicate well and do things for themselves, but just need a bit of encouragement and help.

Last year I organised a fishing charity day for these special kids called KIDS Tackle-A-Fish which I held last February. The aim of the day is to not only teach the kids how to fish but also get the kids doing something fun and something they wouldn’t normally be able to do.

The day was a complete success, and with sponsorship, the kids all received a showbag of goodies, including fishing mags, DVDs, lures, stickers and lots more, as well as a Tackle box with all the tackle they needed for the day, prizes to give away, and also a BBQ lunch was provided.

For the next years event I will be holding KIDS Tackle-A-Fish in the QLD area, most likely Gold Coast.

Fishing Australia as well as Brisbane Fishing Online are the major sponsors of this charity day, and through them we will be making the charity event a continued success in the coming years.

What I am asking of the AFO members, is to give up one day early next year to come and volunteer on the day, to spend the day teaching these kids to fish and tie rigs, manning the BBQ and many others jobs that would make the day successful and also if needed volunteer the use of your rods and reels.

As volunteers on the day, we are NOT responsible for the care and safety of these very special kids (they will have their carers there on the day), we are there to teach the kids how to fish, and I can guarantee that you will have as much fun as the kids will.

It will be land based fishing, and fish caught will be released. This teaches the kids that you can have fun fishing without having to kill the fish.

You may think that it is too early to start asking for volunteers, but since a lot is involved in organising a day like this, what I need is a show of interest in who would be willing to help out on the day, as depending on how many volunteers we have on the day depends on how many kids we can have attend.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions where we can hold the day, please advice. Just remember that the location must be wheelchair accessible.

Any suggestions will be more than welcomed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask, either here or you can PM me.

Thanking you in advance

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Its a lot of work to organise an event like this, especially for a little ducking like me, and at times I wanted to pull my hair out, especially when i had problems with obtaining a group license through fisheries.

But just seeing the kids smiles on their faces made all the work i put in worth while.

And to get a couple of girls moaning and groaning that they didnt want to to a boy thing, and then see them enjoying it so much and winning the prizes.

The way i set up the day, it is not only fishing, I had activities also running such as casting competitions.

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I would prob not be able to donate my time but would gladly throw in $20 or so for the cause, just let me know when, we prob most of us have kids and dont realise how lucky we are to have kids without special needs, if we all gave a little than it would soon add up, i will donate it to the afo website through paypal right now, good luck on the day!!

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I do need to double check the blue card, but when the blue card first came out, I did enquire about it, but since the kids will have carers there on the day and we are not responsible for the kids, you shouldnt need one.

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my wife has a blue card i dont and ive seen the judge too many times to get one probably but id love to help if i/we can bacl in pom land i taught down syndrome and whellie kids how to sail a few times on a small lake with the club iwas in it was the best fun for every one they were some of the most amazing people ive ever met:)

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Hi All,

Ok the rules are slightly different in regards to the blue card in QLD, compared to VIC.

Bad News - All the volunteer helping me out, will need a Blue card.

Good News – I am in the process of setting up KIDS Tackle-A-Fish as a charity organisation, which means all you people wanting to volunteer on the day will not need to pay for a blue card. Once I get it registered, I will then organise for the volunteers to fill out the form and send it back to me.

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Thats a good idea kriso, but what i found was most of this kids had no problems with the casting with a bit of guidence. And it is a lot more fun and interactive when the kids learn how to cast. We even had one girl that was using lures.

What I received from one of my sponsors was a tackle box with all the tackle, but also a hand line so they could fish another time.

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The one and only fish caught.. (foul hooked in the eye)

The story with this one was funny, I had told the kids that all the fish is to be realeased to be caught another day, but of course this fish died, and i had to explain the the child that if she threw it back into the water, a bigger fish will eat it and get even bigger, so she did, just as she turned her back, a seagull came and ate it... thank goodness, she didnt see that... haha

[img size=452]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/708_Resized_DSC_0115_1.jpg

post-1210-144598423636_thumb.jpg

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