''Catch A Special Thrill''
by Larry Noe
posted September 2, 2008
Larry Noe shares this special story with Chattanoogan.com Outdoors readers. Larry is an avid fisherman in East Knox County and tries to fish every day that he can get on the water.
There were at least 30 boat owners “casting” on Douglas Lake this past Saturday for a special thing. They were there with their boats taking the 28 disabled children fishing. They had several different kinds of boats, everything from a fishing boat, a bass boat, even pontoon boats.
They came with one thing on their mind, taking these children fishing, and every one of the boat owners were able to “catch” what they were seeking that day, (you may want to know that they caught over their limits that day).
Each and every one of the boat owners were able to “catch” that happy, friendly, sweet smile that was on every child’s face. The “over limits” comes into play when they also “caught” the smiles of the child’s parent that was with them also.
That is why each and every one caught exactly what C.A.S.T. stands for, Catch A Special Thrill even the boat owners were so very happy they were smiling from ear to ear themselves.
There were boaters there from all walks of life getting a Blessing from taking these children fishing. There were even the Professional Fishermen from the FLW there taking time from their busy schedules and traveling from a great distance to be able to catch the same thing that the local boat owners were seeking to catch. It is not very often that you can go fishing and be on the same team that the professionals are on. This was a big team of what I would call the “We Care About Kids” team. Of which I think the approximately 100 people that showed up not only to take the children fishing but, also to volunteer to help in any way that they could to help get the kids on the water, such as making sure they got on the boats, escorting them to the boat launch, feeding them when they returned, putting the pictures in the plaques they received etc. would agree that the Team Name “We Care For Kids” would be very appropriate.
I want to say that after the kids came back from their “fishing” excursion I was so happy to talk to the boaters about some of the things that went on in the boats while on the water. I heard everything from kids being able to “drive” the boats to a few that would rather play in the water than fish. I was told that all the kids were able to catch a fish (the ones that were fishing).
The boaters that I talked to were as happy as the children, I do believe, there were all smiling (I even noticed a few tears) can you imagine a hard core outdoorsmen crying? Well they were a few shedding happy tears that day. They were all so happy and every one of them told me they wanted to be sure and be able to take part next year.
I was talking about some of the kid’s would rather play in the water than fish, well there was one boater that took a little girl fishing and she wanted to wear his hat and play “beauty shop” needless to say he was her “patron”.
One child had to be taken to the Marina to go to the bathroom, and while he was in the bathroom his brother caught a nice bass. One child just had to go swimming when they got back to the dock since his dad would not let him jump in the lake while out on a boat. Some came to fish and others just wanted to enjoy being on the water.
This is something that some of them will never have the opportunity to ever experience if it had not been for the efforts of a group of people that really care about kids and who knew that they would receive a blessing by taking a handicapped child fishing.
There were a lot of happy people there including the kids and everybody present.
There were several emergency agencies there if needed but thank goodness there were no emergencies. The following agencies were there at the event as well as on the water:
Sevier County Rescue Squad, Sevierville Fire Dept., Newport Rescue Squad, Sevier County Fire Dept. The combined equipment that they brought included: 2 Fire Trucks, 2 Heavy Rescue Vehicles, A Command Post that was air conditioned with beds (in case of someone getting too hot), 1 Ambulance and 10 to 12 boats on the water. There were 42 Emergency personnel there who included Firemen, Emergency Medical Personnel, etc.
I think they deserve a great big thanks for helping out in this event.
After the event was over they even took any child that wanted to ride in the Fire Trucks a ride with lights flashing, siren screaming and all.
Other contributors were, just to name a few were the following Funeral Homes that donated a tent to seat the children under while they ate lunch were: Bridges Funeral Home on Rutledge Pike, Berry’s Funeral Home on Chapman Highway and Highland South Funeral Home on Chapman Highway.
There were so many contributors that it would be impossible to mention them all.
There were 2 boats from the UT Collegiate Fishing Team members that fishes the FLW there names are Nick Tate and Travis McFall along with 2 Castrol Fishing Team members that included Bobby Curtis of Siloam Springs Ark. And Carl Svebek III of Siloam Springs Ark. With them was Laura Long she is the Representative of the Castrol/BP teams. Art Pasley, from Dallas Texas who is the National Program Director with C.A.S.T. was on hand talking to all of the people present and explaining to them all about the C.A.S.T. Program and how it works.
In closing I want to say that I personally really enjoyed being there to see those happy, sweet smiles on those children’s faces and receiving the blessings that I received that day.
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