Youth Angle for Success
with “Angel” Anglers
National partnership teaches young people
angling and life skills
July 24, 2008, Alexandria, VA—Young anglers from Boys & Girls
Clubs in communities across the United States will be “living the
dream” when they team up with Bassmaster Elite Series professional
anglers August 2, 2008, during the 2008 Empire Chase in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Foundation and BASS/ESPN Outdoors have joined efforts to create this
unique opportunity for Club youth to fish with Elite Series professional
anglers.
The Future Fisherman Foundation,
the angling education arm of the American Sportfishing Association (ASA),
is in its second year of a partnership with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ)
Law Enforcement and Youth Partnerships for Crime Prevention to implement a national
program that brings fishing and aquatic education to Boys & Girls Clubs across
the country through the Future Fisherman Foundation’s Hooked on Fishing–Not
on Drugs® program. The program focuses on engaging youth in positive activities
that collaborate with and support local law enforcement efforts to help prevent
crime in America by strengthening relationships between youth and law enforcement.
Each Club selected its youth participants based on solid leadership, good behavior
and demonstrated angling skills.
“These 40 young anglers represent the hundreds of youth who are a participating
in this national effort to reconnect youth with nature. It is wonderful to watch
them grow and develop their fishing skills, especially when they are out on the
water with these “Angel Anglers” from the Bassmaster Elite Tour,” said
Future Fisherman Foundation Executive Director Anne Danielski. “More importantly,
they are developing self confidence and a true love of the outdoors and the water.” The “Angel
Anglers” are a group of professional anglers who routinely give of their
time and on-the-water experience to introduce young people to fishing.
Danielski noted, “I also want to thank BASS, Gemini Sport Marketing,
Shakespeare, ZEBCO Brands, Plano Molding Company, FISHHER, TTI Blakemore
Fishing Group, BoatU.S.Angler, Erie County Bassmasters and New York Sea
Grant for their generous contributions of equipment in support of this
program.”
“We are proud to be a part of this program,” said Janet
Bell, ESPN’s Athlete Relations director. “Our anglers love
to fish with these children and we all recognize how important it is
to connect America’s youth to the outdoors and especially to fishing.”
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The Future Fisherman
Foundation is the angler recruitment and education arm of the American
Sportfishing Association, the leading recreational fishing trade association.
The Future Fisherman Foundation unites the sportfishing industry with
a nationwide network of state outdoor educators, national conservation
groups and youth organizations, offering a variety of fishing and boating
programs, equipment and services to community groups and schools across
the country. These efforts help people of all ages have safe and enjoyable
fishing experiences that foster life-long conservation ethics.
