A good long while ago, on my other blog, The Unaccomplished Angler, I wrote about my first ever author visit to Gracemor Elementary in Kansas City, Missouri in October of 2008. In many ways that seems like forever ago, although I’ll never forget the trip and the wonderful people who welcomed me at Gracemor.
I’m glad to know that they haven’t forgotten about me, either. Today I received an email from Mr. Bob Dever, the teacher who orchestrated my visit to his school. He’s still teaching fishing and fly fishing to kids at Gracemor thanks to continued grant money from the Physh Ed program at the Future Fisherman Foundation.
Bob writes:
I wanted to brag to you about our wonderful librarians at Gracemor Elementary School. I also thought the Federation of Fly Fishers would be interested in this story. Pictured from left to right are our librarians. Both staff members are well acquainted with our school’s fishing and outdoor education program and have made great contributions to make the program successful by ordering many types of fishing books for our school’s library. Recently they made this display, to be sure our students know about these books. What more could this fishing instructor ask for?
Kirk, we still love your Olive books.
Fishing display at the library of Gracemor Elementary
That made my day. Thanks to Bob for his leadership and devotion in arranging for kids at Gracemor Elementary to be introduced to fishing and fly fishing, and to the wonderful library staff for reinforcing the value that fishing offers kids. And of course thanks to the Future Fisherman Foundation for the tremendous work they do to promote fishing to kids. There’s much more to fishing than catching fish and thanks to all these folks, kids can find out what that means. Kids are, afterall, tomorrow’s stewards of our resources. Introduce a kid to fishing and you’re investing in the future.
