Investing in the Future of Fishing

PRADCO-Fishing recently presented the Future Fisherman Foundation (F3) with a donation check for $15,000 and issued a challenge to others in the fishing industry to match – or top – this donation.

"We feel like it"s our responsibility," Bruce Stanton, PRADCO-Fishing general manager, said. "The Future Fisherman Foundation lost its funding last year, and without the help of the fishing industry it won"t be able to continue its important work of exposing youngsters to the pleasure and excitement of fishing."

F3 reaches more than one million school-aged youth per year, much of it through the Hooked on Fishing – Not Drugs® and Physh Ed programs in public schools. Many of the students participating in the programs are inner city residents who don"t see much opportunity to fish, so it"s essential that the programs continue.

"PRADCO-Fishing has really stepped up with this donation," F3 Executive Director Keith Sutton said. "When we first lost our funding, Lawrence Taylor, PRADCO-Fishing director of public relations, was the first industry person to approach me with not only a pledge to help, but an idea of how to go about it. He created a tackle pack at www.lurenet.com with an incredible price, and one dollar from every sale was donated to the Foundation. This latest donation is major, and we"re hoping more manufacturers will follow PRADCO"s lead."

Youth have long been importance priority for PRADCO-Fishing. From volunteering at local-level kids fishing derbies to providing product donations for youth events across the country, the managers at PRADCO-Fishing are continually finding a way to reach out to budding anglers.

"It can be tough because you want to do so much more," Taylor said. "Kids are our No. 1 priority when it comes to donations; I think every child should walk away from an event with a lure or decal or something. We"re in the business of making memories, and sometimes it"s just bringing home that free Jitterbug or bag of YUM panfish baits that spurs them on to a lifetime love of fishing."