I run a fishing group out of a private special education school in Southern CT where I also teach PE and Fitness. Our students have wide range of physical and intellectual ...more disabilities combined with trauma history that makes it very difficult for them to attend school in their districts so they send them to us. The kids are considered clients with very strict privacy protection. I can't take a pic of so much as their hand and post it anywhere. I was reluctant to even post about it till now. But what I have done for 52 kids since April(about half of kids who participated) up till our last trip today, is help them catch their first fish, more sunfish and pickerel than bass, but still special. I take a photo like this one from today, put it through a color printer, laminate it, and present it to them.
There are days when I have to grit my teeth, like today when a student cast my $16 chatterbait Jackhammer in a tree then snapped it off by pulling, and all I could do was watch it drop in the water. Or my Livingston noise making lure which stares down at me way high up in a tree from another spot, a casualty of an earlier trip. Shame on me for not getting it off the rod quick enough, lol. But it's all worth it when see a young person literally break out in tears from seeing a bull frog for first time as we do pond exploration as well. Anyway I know this post is a book but with so much negativity in the world just felt like sharing.
