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Tag: casting 4 a cure

Help Olive, help kids, and help fish via Greenfish Gear!

If you look to the right sidebar you’ll see a graphic that proudly states that I am a Greenfish Ambassador. What that signifies is that I like what Greenfish stands for, and because of my involvement as an author in the fly fishing community, I’ve been granted status as an Ambassador. In that capacity I am not obligated to do anything, but I do stand by the Greenfish mission to support sustainable fisheries. It’s a good deal. They’re a company promoting not only their brand, but conservation.

Greenfish donates 5% of every sale to a conservation group of your designation. From the Greenfish website:

GreenFish partners with various companies and organizations that we support financially as well as philosophically. Through the “GreenFish Gives” program, each time you buy a product from us you can select one of our partner organizations where you would like 5% of your purchase to be donated. GreenFish then makes a quarterly donation to each of these groups who support our mission based on your purchases. All GreenFish partners share common values: to encourage sustainable fishing as a means of protecting fisheries and the environment while also promoting the sport of recreational fishing.

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. Because of my status as a Greenfish Ambassador, I can offer you an opportunity to purchase Greenfish gear at a 20% discount by simply using this discount code when you place your order: 00145CW.

Yes, there is a benefit to me.

I get 10% of sales that are made using my discount code. However, and this is the key–I am not pocketing that 10%.

Through sales of my Olive books I support Casting 4 A Cure and am participating in their fundraiser in Victor, Idaho in August. Casting 4 A Cure, if you are not aware, is an organization that uses two annual fly fishing events to raise funding for research to find a cure for Rett Syndrome, which is a cruel neurological disorder affecting mostly young girls. A buddy of mine is joining me on this trip and I am trying to raise $4000 for our entry fees.

So when you place a Greenfish order, you’re contributing to conservation, getting a 20% discount on some sweet swag, kicking 10% my way, which in turn goes directly to Casting 4 a Cure. Pretty cool, eh?

This promotion expires September 1, 2011- but please don’t wait because I need to raise the money for Casting 4 A Cure by the end of June.

Please repost this – pass the discount code around to others who you think might be interested, and thanks for your help and support. Here is the code once again: 00145CW. Click on over to Greenfish and check out their cool stuff, please.

Kirk

 

Fly Fishing Auction to benefit Casting 4 A Cure

Casting 4 A Cure is a tremendous organization comprised of folks who love kids and fly fishing. The passion for one benefits the love for the other as fly fishing serves as a vehicle to raise much-needed funding for the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.

Rett Syndrome is a cruel neurodevelopmental disorder which begins to show its affects in infancy or early childhood. It is seen almost exclusively in females, although it can occur rarely in boys.  The disorder severely disrupts gross and fine motor skills as well as robbing the girls of their ability to speak and communicate with the outside world.  Seizures and breathing problems can also be prevailing symptoms. It affects every aspect of a family’s life, as our girls are dependent upon us for almost everything, from helping feed them to helping them get around, bathing, and most other daily tasks that most of us take for granted.

Currently there is a very special Ebay auction taking place over the next 10 days. View the auction HERE – it includes some really great stuff. All proceeds will go directly to Casting 4 a Cure, and the auction includes the following items:

Scandalous Sticks Custom Fiberglass “Pygmy” Fly Rod
The Pygmy is a very special little fiberglass rod. It is a 5 foot 6 inch 4wt that has more personality than some people. It is not uncommon to toss a 60-foot cast with a 12 foot leader and a dry fly. Being designed for the dry fly genre it’s NEVER had a rough presentation. The Pygmy has the ability to fight BIG fish into the 30-inch range with ease. This beautiful custom-built rod is truly a one of a kind, with a custom blonde Israeli olive wood reel seat and a “Casting 4 A Cure”  label. This would be a great rod for kids to learn to cast with, but once you see it you’ll want to keep it for yourself! Price $450 Read my review of the rod HERE

Clear Creek aluminum rod tube and sock
Anodized brass screw-on cap with protected internal threads. Clear Creek tubes feature thicker .05” aluminum for super-protection and padded top prevents damage to contents. Rod sock is 60/40 poly-cotton, features flap and tie closure.  Retail $47

Redington Drift 3/4  Fly Reel
Titanium. Designed to meet the specific needs of the trout fisherman, the new Click and Pawl Drift Series is fully machined from 6061-T6 aluminum. These reels are custom anodized.  (pre-spooled with backing and line) Retail $99.95

Rio Mainstream Trout WF4F
Designed to optimize rod performance at normal casting ranges. The MainStream floating lines have a supple self-lubricating coating that remains memory-free in cold water. Retail $39.95

Fishpond Laurel Run Fly Box
In designing the Laurel Run, we challenged the notion that fly boxes must be made of plastic or metal.  Crush-resistant, molded construction; Zippered case; Colorful fishpond Jacquard accent webbing doubles as hand strap; Climbing cord loop for lanyard;High-density foam for easy identification of flies; Floats. 4 x 6 inches. Retail $25.00

Olive the Woolly Bugger books
This series of three children’s fly fishing books is signed by the author, Kirk Werner.  Includes Olive the Little Woolly Bugger, Olive and The Big Stream, and Olive Goes for a Wild Ride.  Also included is an embroidered Olive baseball style cap. Retail $38.85 ($12.95 each)

Tomorrow’s Fly Fishers DVD by Fanny Krieger
This DVD is an introduction to fly fishing for young people and beginners of all ages. It unravels the mystery of fly fishing into a simple, easy to under-stand and fun adventure. Fanny is a Federation of Fly Fishers Certified Casting Instructor. If you know the Krieger name, that says it all!  Retail $29.95

So many contests, so little time!

There are a couple different contests going on right now, and with so much excitement, things can get a little confusing. Let me clear things up.

Contest #1: Olive Stickers to support Casting 4 a Cure

This isn’t so much a contest, rather than a friendly competition to raise a little money for a great cause. I’m selling Olive the Woolly Bugger stickers for $3.00 each: of that, $1.50 goes directing to Casting 4 a Cure to fund research and support for the International Rett Syndrome Foundation. The other $1.50 covers the cost of printing and postage. The person who places the largest order of stickers as of October 4th 2010 will win a pair of Optic Nerve sunglasses (A $100 value). All you have to do to enter into the competition is click on over to Myflies.com and purchase a sticker. BTW, a sticker will look great on your drift boat, fishing rig, or tricycle.

October is National Rett Syndrome Awareness Month, so what a perfect time to buy an Olive sticker and contribute to such a worthy cause. Stickers will continue to be sold foe the good cause after the contest concludes.

Contest #2: Book Giveaway – 2 Free sets of Olives

I’ve created a little scavenger hunt of sorts for anyone to enter.  There is no cost, other than a few minutes of your time.  If you answer the questions correctly your name will be thrown into my lucky fishing hat. Two names will be drawn, and those lucky folks will each receive a set of three Olive fly fishing books for kids.  Contest ends September 30, 2010 so hurry! Contest rules can be found HERE.

Get stuck on Olive and help Casting 4 A Cure

The power of the internet never ceases to amaze me. What’s more amazing than that is the generosity of complete strangers.  In this virtual world of ever-increasing social media and online networking, there are critics who think that the world is becoming an increasingly impersonal place.  While that may be true to some extent, I find that the internet is bringing people closer together. There’s no substitute for meeting someone face-to-face and shaking their hand but since that’s not always readily possible, making acquaintances online is the next best thing. I’ve had the good fortune of meeting some great people lately – people who have been generously willing to help me out. And by helping me they’re helping others.

April Vokey is one such person whom I’ve yet to actually meet in person, but through the internet and Facebook we’ve shared some online correspondence. April owns and operates Flygal Ventures, a British Columbia-based fly fishing guide service. April is also a casting instructor and offers many different casting workshops. She’s a busy gal, and recently returned from Victor, Idaho where she participated in the Casting 4 A Cure event on August 27-29. For those who don’t know, Casting 4 A Cure is a group of like-minded compadres who use fly fishing as a means of having a lot of fun while at the same time raising money for the International Rett Syndrome Foundation. It’s a tremendous group of people fighting to find a cure for a horrible childhood disease.  Since my series of children’s fly fishing books have a little something to do with kids and fly fishing, I pledged Olive’s support for Casting 4 A Cure and will do what I can to raise a little money for the group. One of the projects I’ve started is selling Olive the Woolly Bugger stickers, with proceeds going to Casting 4 A Cure.

My friend Sharon Butterfield is another key person who has helped me out. Sharon owns Myflies.com, which is a rapidly growing online collection of fly fishing talent, from fly tiers to artists, photographers to authors, rod builders to guides and adventures and lodging.  It’s an impressive assortment of folks that Sharon has assembled, and fly anglers looking for the best of many offerings need look no further than Myflies.com. A while back Sharon generously offered to sell the stickers through her site, saving me from having to set up a sales venue. Stickers sell for $3.00 and of that $1.50 is sent directly to Bill Farnum, Executive Director for Casting 4 A Cure.  The other half covers the printing cost of the stickers and postage. If you do the math you’ll see that nothing goes into my pockets.

I recently asked Apri Vokey if she wouldn’t mind posting an Olive sticker link on her Facebook page. She’s much more popular than I am, and by doing so she has helped put the word out to several thousand people. Upon posting the link, one of April’s friends stepped up and offered a free pair of Optic Nerve sunglasses (valued at $100) to the person who places the largest order of Olive stickers by October 4th.  K.C. Lund is a fly angler and former professional snowboarder now working as a steel fabricator and is the BC/Alta rep for Optic Nerve. This generous act has left me humbled- thank you, K.C. If you would like to reach K.C. to inquire about Optic Nerve sunglasses you can do so by sending email to E.kc.opticnerve (at) telus.net

I want to thank April for spreading the word and for having such great friends, and to also thank Sharon for all the support in selling the stickers.  I couldn’t do it without your help.

So to those who read this blog, and I’m not sure that there are many of you yet, please consider purchasing an Olive the Woolly Bugger sticker and by doing so helping Casting 4 A Cure. Click on the sticker graphic below and it’ll take you right over to Myflies.com.