I am not sure who coined the phrase “The kids are worth it!” but they truly are.
They deserve our best efforts in every capacity. With my marathon days behind me, I am forever searching for ways to highlight the work we do, and in the process, raise some funding along the way.
So, off the back of some extraordinary exposure on the BBC South East Today programme, I embarked on my slightly mad idea of a Flyathlon: catch a fish, then run around Bewl Water, and then figure out the third part of the challenge…. It all seemed so very easy.
Always worry when things appear simple. Usually, they are not.
The weather, with a temperature of 28°C, was my complication. Quite how I managed to select the very hottest day of the year, I will never know. The unrelenting sunshine made fishing all but impossible from the bank, and a run turned out to be a half-marathon cross-country …o’er Wealden hill and cross baked rutted clay. The “simple” transformed into a downright challenging, I did catch that fish and I did complete it all in about three hours. I'm still not sure how.
We did raise a few “quid” for the Kent Team, a figure further enhanced by the wonderful Brick Farm Fly Fishery in Sussex. Phil and Danni Axel at Brick Farm have supported Fishing for Schools way beyond what could ever be expected of anyone. Their embrace of what we are trying to achieve and willingness to help is, well, breathtaking.
The event on the 1 June just was a ringing celebration of those efforts.
Then there is Madeline Price, wife to the wonderous Taff Price, who shaped so many of our fly fishing lives with talks, articles, flies, and equipment – a true cornucopia of angling delights. Madeleine has donated Taff’s fly tying materials to Fishing for Schools, and believe me, that is a considerable gift and legacy. I am still to catalogue the boxes which filled a transit van, but when I finish, you will be the first to know.
The point of all of this, and it is very poignant, is that people believe in Fishing for Schools and importantly, they believe in young people.
That belief spurs us on to greater heights.
Yes, the kids are worth it.. and more.
Comments