On Saturday, Reel Blessed Chapter of Fishing’s Future held our second Vamos A Pescar event of the year. Tania and I arrived at the Port Saint Lucie Botanical Gardens around 7:15 am to start setting up. Knowing most would arrive early, I told the volunteers to show up at about 7:30 am, and I wanted to ensure we were the first ones to arrive. Well, I was correct; the volunteers started to arrive at about 7:20 am. With all the help, we were set up and ready for registration at about 8:15 am.

The families started arriving at about 8:30 am, and we started a few minutes after 9:00 am to allow the last few families to finish filling out the required forms. We had 48 participants in attendance today, which officially makes it our largest attended event! We opened up in prayer as we always did, Thanking the Lord for the beautiful day and asking for His blessing of protection for all attending our events and if it was His will to allow all the participants to catch fish.

At about 9:10 am, we divided the families into four groups. We sent them to the four stations: the first station was how to tie the uni-knot, the second station reviewed rules and regulations, the third station taught casting, and the fourth was basic tackle.

At about 9:45 am, we brought all the families back together. We went over a few water safety concerns while fishing. First was always keeping an eye open for alligators and second was to watch the bank for fire ant mounds. I was unfortunate and stepped in one or two while talking with participants. After the short brief, we provided all the participants with rods/reels and baits, and we went fishing. Ten return participants received their very own rod/reel combo.

We fished from 10:00 am to 11:00 am. It was hot and humid, but the bite was on fire. Most everyone caught a fish. Four kids did not catch fish; however, everyone else caught multiple fish. Our volunteers did our best to try to get everyone a fish, but not catching fish is part of fishing. It’s not a lesson we want to teach our participants, but it is a valuable lesson.

At 11:00 am, Elliott, one of the boys attending our event, blessed our lunch. Synergy Magnet School provided bagged lunches and fruit punch. The participants seemed to enjoy the time spent eating a meal together as a family!

After lunch, I gathered all the kids together and handed out bags for each one. Their mission was to gather as much trash as possible in five minutes. The one who brought back the most would get a prize. We collected more trash on Saturday than we have ever gathered in the past. I went home with two 40-gallon bags full of trash.  We had two kids who partnered with each other, and we gave them hats as a prize. Once we were done picking up trash, we had each child thank their parent/guardian for bringing them to the event, tell them they loved them, and hug them.

Lunch and having the kids thank their parents/guardians are the highlights for Tania and me. We feel it is essential to our mission of strengthening family bonds through the sport of fishing.

Reel Blessed holds these events at no cost to the participants. With the help of Fishing’s Future, Tania and I have raised all the funds for every event and equipment. We have raised these funds through grants, sponsorships, and donations. Salt Strong is our most significant financial sponsor as well as a valuable source for volunteers. We cannot forget Publix, which donates water for every one of our events. If you want to participate in or volunteer for one of our events, click the “contact me” link below. If you feel called to donate financially to us so we can keep holding these events at no cost, click the “Donate Link” and put Reel Blessed in the comment section of the donate page.