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| First morning with the Mayfly Project along the Wissahickon. |
I spent the
last two Saturdays in March mentoring some kids who find themselves in the foster
care system in Philadelphia. They had
the guts to sign up to go fly fishing with a bunch of strange adults, and their
caregivers had the heart to get up early two Saturdays in a row, two rather
chilly Saturdays, and let these middle-school boys have a new experience and
hopefully create a great memory or two.
The quote about being powerful came from a 13-year boy I am working
with. I will call him K. I asked to work with K when I saw that his
profile shared that he had already been diagnosed with PTSD at that young,
formative age. I have some experience in
my career and my family with PTSD, so I thought I
might have the right approach with him. He
is awesome. Smart, dryly funny, and just
a gentle soul. All this comes in a size
11 shoe and 5’8’’ frame, and he’s still growing! We had a heck of time finding waders in our
collection of youth waders that would fit him.
A couple of my mentor peers were even going to drive home and bring back
an extra pair of adult waders.
Thankfully, we found a pair that fit him. When I asked K and H, another one of the
mentees, how they felt in waders, K was first to answer: “I feel powerful.” Mission accomplished! Laughs, time outside in the woods, mentoring
from grown men who can still act like kids, supportive caregivers who’ve committed
to making a memory for them, and feeling powerful. I still can’t believe how lucky we got with
these boys for our first year of the program.
It is unrealistic to think that we are creating future fly fishers,
maybe, but it is easier to accept that this will be a great experience for all
of us.
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| H with a "bass," a highlight of week one, and putting the rods together. |
Saturday, March
21 was before Mentored Youth Day, so we could not get in the water. We talked bugs, knots, and fish handling
before we helped the boys assemble rods.
We ended the day with a casting demonstration and lesson from Ken and
Cathy, two really valuable mentors on the team.
The husband and wife help organize their own one-day event at Norristown
Farm Park each year, so this is not their first rodeo. They added some fun touches to the casting practice. Tying on Velcro “hooks” to cast to and catch
some laminated fish was a big hit. A
third mentee, S, is a gamer and wants to design video games when he grows
up. He was obsessed with catching every
fake fish on the casting lawn! All the
boys caught a few and held them up for a practice “grip and grin” before we
called it a day. I could not get a head-on
shot of H with his bass because his grandmother was laughing and taking pictures
of him to show to Pop Pop when they got back home! I packed up my own fishing gear for Sunday
morning, but Saturday with the mentors and mentees must have taken more out of
me than I expected. Not in a bad way, but
I was tired and needed to sleep in on Sunday.
I knew better than to plan any fishing the following Sunday at
least. This was more than enough for one weekend.
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| K keeping 'em wet and hamming it up for the camera |
March 28th
was a chilly Mentored Youth Day on the Mighty Wissahickon. It could not have gone any better. S was my bet to fall in the water AND catch
the biggest fish. He did not disappoint. He actually caught a massive golden as his
first fish on a fly rod. All the boys
caught more than one fish that morning.
They forgot all their casting lessons, of course, when it came to time
to catch fish, but that is totally natural.
My casting form probably suffers too when I am excited to mess with a
bunch of fresh stockers 😉 How
could we fail? We had three mentees show
up and at least 10 mentors, so their was a chorus of cheers every time a fish was
landed by one of the boys. Every time an
indicator bounced, there were 10 shouts to set the hook. Every kid and fish was photographed from 10
different angles. I haven’t gotten that
excited about stocked rainbows since my own son was their age, since I was
their age, maybe! It was a charmed day.
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| We all knew who would be most like to score big and fall in, our man S. |
We have a break
for Easter weekend, but we have two more Saturdays in April before this year’s
program wraps. I guess I should catch
some fish on Easter? I have been very busy
at work for the last three weeks, midterm grades, registration for next fall,
and housing selection, but now that this is over, I took some weekdays off in
April and May to supplement my weekend adventures. I do love the predictable rise and fall of
the college calendar, and I will take advantage of it fully this spring and
summer. I may even try to catch a shad
for the first time in decades (depending on how good of a guide Larry is). My old man would be proud. Keeping that nostalgia tour going, I will
also be back in Lycoming. Tioga, and Potter Counties in May. I caught my first brookies and my first trout
on a dry fly in Lycoming County when I was probably the age of the Mayfly
Project mentees. It stuck with me, so
maybe it will stick with a couple of them too?
Of course, my dad counted the full week around Easter as a holy week,
not as holy as the week in Canada, but pretty essential to observe faithfully. I am grateful that I had a father in the picture who considered
fishing an excused absence from school. It still is for me.
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| We even found the rare mayfly nymph in the Wissy. A charmed day. |
