Take- A- Kid Ice Fishing Feb16th 2013

[Chad Holst]

(I will be posting more information as I get the ok for what I am able to list on this forum, as far as sponsors and links etc… if I violate a forum rule here, please just let me know and I will edit it)

I am putting together a large "Take-A-Kid Ice Fishing" Event On Feb 16th at Chester Woods, Just East of Rochester.

I believe that almost every kid would fish almost every day, if they were able to. My objective is to eliminate every excuse, for just one day, that a child may hear, when they ask “can I go fishing?”

No money? Fine, it’s free for the day, as long as the kids 16 or under, no license needed for the child or adult.

You don’t have a kid under 16? PERFECT we will need many many many persons that have no kids to help the children coming from local group homes/foster homes or multi child homes. (1 kid per adult is our goal)

No equipment? Fine, I will have loaner rods/reels and tackle for up to 50 adults/kids to use.(possibly more)

Can’t afford bait? Fine, we will have 2 bait companies providing all the bait you need.

Don’t know how to fish/ice fish? We will have professional guides from a guide service, Pro-staff from manufacturers, MN DNR staff and MANY MANY avid fishermen available to help get you started and catching fish.

It’s cold out? Yes, that’s why it’s called ICE fishing, that’s not an excuse, it’s the reason we are able to do it.

Mom, sister, dad, brother don’t like going on the ice or don’t like to fish? PERFECT! Bring them, and we will put you on the ice with a “guide” and they can volunteer to work in the registration tent, food tent, loaner tent, or some other needed area…ON LAND. If they don’t like to be in the cold or fish…they can shuttle kids from the group homes or foster homes. WE WILL FIND SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE!

THE GOAL IS TO HAVE 1 “GUIDE” (any adult) for every 1 CHILD.

Fishing Equipment (limited to the first 40-50 people), bait, food and fun will all be provided.

We will have drawings/contests and door prizes. (both for the “guides” and the kids)

This Event Coincides with the state "free" fishing weekend, as long as you are fishing with a child 16 or under. The child and the Adult will not need a license.

What I have set-up so far:

MN DNR will be sending people to assist.

Olmsted County Parks will be sending people to assist. (We are meeting with the county to make sure we can have the “park fee” waived, so that people do not have to pay the $3.00 fee, or we will work that out for those that cannot pay the fee)

The Rochester Post Bulletin and Cumulus Radio will be donating ad space and air time. (3 times a day on 6 stations for 2 weeks)

We have received a large amount of rod/reel combos Donated from 13fish, to use as “loaners” for the day. These loaners will be added to our “loaners from our donors” to be used in future events. ( a few will also make it to our contest/drawing prize table. I also have many extra rods/reels to loan out, for those with no equipment. (they are also sending Pro-staffer to assist)

Stevens Outdoors will be bringing several clams, extra loaners and augers. They are also bringing all 5 of their guides to assist with first time ice fisher persons.

PK Lures has donated $1000.00 worth of jigging spoons and flyers to help build loaner kits.

True turn Hooks has donated 160 “take a kid fishing” hook packs to be given out with our “goodie bags”.

Plasti-Lite has donated 400 bobbers for the “goodie bags”.

Hooked On fishing is donating Bait, donor rods, and a door prize.

Wild Goose Sports is donating the boxes to build the loaner tackle kits, any extra bait needed and 2-3 full size custom made (with Take A Kid Ice Fishing-engraved) St.Croix blanked walleye rods. (these are beautiful $125 rods that are handmade.

We have several companies that have given us a “yes” on our donation request, but we do not know the details yet.

WHAT WE STILL NEED:

#1) ADVERTISE!!! We need you to tell 10 people about the event. We want to pack the house. The more people that come, the more attractive it is to manufacturers to donate, the more they donate the more people we can attract and that means… MORE KIDS FISHING!!

#2) Loaner kits: we still need to line about 45 reels with ice line. We also need small ice jigs. (pan fish jigs) Anyone that wants to bring any extra jigs/poles equipment to donate or to loan out for the day. (we are going to have a “loaner board” to keep track of equipment and who has it…probably have the adult leave an ID on the board and number or tag the rods/reels and tackle kits)

#3) Fishermen that have extra portables and heaters/lights.

#4) Anyone that has a connection/contact at any manufacturers. I know they get a TON of donation requests, so any help on that end is great.

#5) Wives, Daughters, Husbands, Son’s that may not want to fish to help in the registration area/food area/loaner area. We need lots of pictures, so any camera persons would be welcome. We also will be organizing some fun activities, so we will need people to help run “ice bag tosses” for the kids or “hole drilling contests for the Adults…er I mean “guides”.

You are not required to sign up before the event, however we would like to get a good idea on how many people are coming. Our plans now are for 300, but more would be great.

If you know you are going to be coming, please leave a message here showing your support. If you can bring extra portables, equipment, etc…

MERRY CHRISTMAS. I will post more details as we get closer, add more sponsors, etc..

[Tyler Holm]

If you would be willing to drop me a PM, I'm willing to help in several aspects.

[ted4887]

PM me as well.

[Chad Holst]

Sent PM to you ted.

Sent Email to you tyler.

[Chad Holst]

Just recieved a package of 150 Ice Buster Bobbers from the "original" Ice Buster company (Today's Tackle- MADE IN MN)He also sent us a ton of tie knots. (now we just need the line for all our reels and we will be looking pretty good)

Recieved 2(25%) and 1 (40%) VIP discount cards from okumma along with some logo hats to give away.

Still looking for:

LINE

SMALL JIGS

Volunteers

Extra houses and heaters.

DOES ANYONE HAVE... walled "easy up" type tents they could loan out? I have 2 but would like atleast 2 more 6 would be even better.

[TwinkeeDink]

Very nice work sirlips. Hope to see you there.

[Chad Holst]

We have recieved more items for the event. Gander has lined all of our reels and donated some hats for door prizes. Several gift cert's from Toppers, Cousins subs, Great harvest bread company, Zadeos pizza, little ceasers pizza, brueggers bagels, dunn brothers and...and..and...

We will be starting to post flyers around town this week.

Still looking for anyone that has "ez up" type tents for the grill/registration, food tents. Anything with walls that will hold some heat if needed.

[Chad Holst]

A quick update:

Today we recieved some new items from manufacturers...

We will now be giving away something to EVERYONE that comes to the event, unless we get over 400 people, then some may end up recieving hugs and smiles as their drawing prize...However iv'e been told im quite the hugger.

We are adding HT Fishing to our sponsor list. thanks to HT fishing we are giving away 8 Original HT tip ups. 48 HT packages of tip up line, 6 COMPLETE rod/reel/tackle/line/bobber sets, 4 jigga whopper rods, 48 double trouble lures, 200+ sponge bobbers (6 per pack) a set of hand warms for the first 72 kids and 3 ht rod lockers!

We will be picking up more certificates this weekend.

Our "need list" continues to be EZ up type tents (with walls), ice scoops and buckets.

DONT FORGET TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS. And, leave a post letting us know that you are planning to come. Be sure to bring the "non fisher persons" to help work in the tents for food, loaner equipment check outs and registrations for door prizes.

[Chad Holst]

Bennie at Nexgen graphics got the flyers done today...I think they turned out pretty well.

We recieved more door prizes this week and also have all of the food taken care of now, thanks to Cub Foods, Silver Lake Foods and HyVee.

We also have a great sponsorship from Famous Dave's! Fishing and free BBQ gift cards...yummmm.

[Chad Holst]

Started the food shopping today!

I am a big advicate of showing appreciation for the generousity that people and/or companies show, however my appreciation only can go so far...

The next time you are at CUB FOODS in Rochester, please ask for a manager when you are checking out and tell them "thank you" for the donation they gave us and the discount on the items I bought.

This is just the Cub Foods items.

When i went to pick up the the hotdogs from silverlake foods, the 300 hotdogs somehow turned into over 500 hotdogs!

I had set up buns from HyVee, but expected to need buns for 300 hotdogs...So i stopped at the new Safeway foods and they have pledged the remaining 200 buns!

Please be sure to shake the managers hand and give them a "straight in the eye" thank you for the support they have all 4 shown.

I think the clerk that worked the check out lane almost didnt want to charge me when, after ringing everything up, i realized we didnt have the mini marshmellows for the hot chocolate and ran back and grabbed 10 bags of those little gooey balls of wonderful goodness. He said "really?" i told him we cant have kids drinking hot chocolate without mini marshmellows! He then asured me he would be there with his kids and will bringing as many people as he can find.

[Chad Holst]

A new package of goodies just arrived... $1200 worth of PK lures. We have put together 100 PK lure prize packages with these!

A quick run down of all the adult and kid prizes...

Free food, water, pop, hot chocolate, cookies, chips, for everyone...

First 150 get goodie bags with lures, bobbers, decals, line, gift cards/certificates/coupons,hand warmers, Baseball tickets and marketing material from our sponsors, etc...

Prizes:

Gift certificates from MANY MANY places. Movies, food, toys, hotels, etc..

Kid Prizes: ABC Toys package, Lures, rods, reels, Rod/reel packages, Gift cards/certificates, Logo gear,baseball tickets and much more..

Adult prizes: Hotel stays, Buck Fillet knives, Kbar USMC Knife, Collector knife set (wolves), St.croix open water custom made "take a Kid ice fishing" rod worth $150-$200, Bar/rest gift cards, MN Twins memorablia, etc..

Fishing equipment: 13Fish rods and reels. HT tip ups, rod holders, reels, rods, full rod/reel/tackle packages, Misc new rod/reels from donors, etc..

Plus misc items: baseball tickets (400), Hats, shirts and other mics. logo gear from several companies.

Prizes are for all fish caught and big fish, plus some extra fun and games we will do.

[Tyler Holm]

I'm super pumped for this event and I'd highly encourage anyone with Kids (or even without kids) to show up. It's going to be a great time. The organizers have spent hundreds of hour in preparation and all their hard work is going towards an outstanding event revolving around getting kids involved in the outdoors.

[flyfisher03]

Sounds like a great time. I will be out of town though.

[Chad Holst]

We have the Food tents, warming tents, young kids fishing tents, Weight area tents...etc.etc...etc.. set up.

Things look great after a good day of work on the lake. Hope to see MANY of you there.

Tight lines!

[flyfisher03]

How did the event turn out? Wish I could have helped out.

[Chad Holst]

The event was AMAZING! We ended up with 600 participants! Alot of fish caught but the bite was a little slow. We learned ALOT. next year will be even better.

As soon as the word got out about the turn out the phone started ringing from sponsors for next year. funny how that works.

Next year we will expidite the prize system as it took along time to give away all the prizes. We will have seperate tents for the loaners, food, bait, etc... to make it easier for people to get what they need.

The weather was perfect. No wind. 20 degrees. In fact we had one tent set up with 60 holes for families with very young kids...didnt turn the heater on it once, and the tent was empty 1/2 way through as the weather was so nice out.

All in all it went very very good though. lots of great response on our facebook page and in e-mails.

Also, next year i am hoping to find an ATV sales company to sponsor the event in exchange for shuttling trailers with seating up and down to the lake. The walk up the hill was hard on some of the folks with young kids or elderly people.

[natertater83]

is this going to happen again this year? we had a blast last year.

[Chad Holst]

Yes. The event is going to be feb 15th this year. I will be posting the info soon.