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Since we opened our shop a year and a half ago, we have realized that an important part of our mission is community outreach and advocacy, particularly making fishing and outdoor adventures more available and accessible, for both adults and kids. Some of the obstacles to be overcome include the need for education, access to equipment, the benefit of having a mentor, and state licensing fee cost.
We’ve also been approached by many customers and friends who have offered to volunteer their time or donate equipment to help introduce people to fishing and paddling activities. Some of our recent outreach activities have included presentations to schools and coordination of gear donation to a local youth group. Going forward, we’re going to do many of these activities as part of our “Heron Project“ and we have set up a nonprofit corporation for this purpose.
We’re also going to formalize a process for accepting, refurbishing, and donating/
sharing needed fishing gear. We’re going to call this program “Re-Cast”, and we will be talking more about that in the months ahead.
We realize we have been slow to accept the generous offers of friends and customers to provide volunteer services. We think this structure will give us a better opportunity to work with those volunteers to help introduce people to fishing and outdoor activities. To kick things off, Heron Project is going to participate in a clean-up project on the Wakarusa River below Clinton Dam.