|
As you know because you were there, the Derby was held on Saturday, May 29th and we had nice weather and a good turnout of kids. There were 39 children registered with a good mix of boys and girls. The following were the highlights of the Derby with some suggestions to make next years event even better:
- Registration - (Jim Tidd, Dick Dunne, and Bill Osborne of GCSC) - No apparent problems, this ran very smoothly
- Trout Stocking - (Ed Covert of New Castle) Ed delivered the 250 Brown Trout at 9:00 AM and the kids carried the fish to the stream with Munnell Run Nursery buckets (Ed did not bring enough buckets). This worked out well with photos by Sharon Herald and another paper.
- Prizes - (Terry Farren) We decided to do the raffle at 11:30 AM since the kids were getting restless, and that time worked out well. Terry bought two dozen or so prizes with fishing outfits, tackle boxes, fish stringers, and bobbers. We supplemented those prizes with rain ponchos and ball point pens left over from our TU March banquet so everyone went home with a prize.
- Suggestions: Purchase smaller bobbers, and keep the idea that everyone should get their raffle ticket number called and win a prize, keep the time at 11:30 AM again next year.
- Lunch - (Jim Tidd, Dick Dunne, and Bill Osborne of GCSC) The Hotdogs were cooked at home and brought to the area warm so everyone could eat at the same time. They were supplemented with individual bags of chips and soda. This went very smoothly.
- Demonstartions - The "fish cleaning" demonstartion (Nick Loprire) started at 11:00 AM, and was received very well with about a half dozen kids who wanted to watch Nick clean their fish. The "casting" demonstration (Dick Natoli) was only requested by two kids; we need to spice this up or drop the idea altogether.
- Suggestions - Keep the fish cleaning demonstration the same time next year; most of the kids were busy fishing until then.
- Announcements - (Dick Natoli) We used the portable loud speaker furnished by Jim Mondok (Mercer County Conservation District equipment), and it worked out great.
- Suggestions - Use the loud speaker again next year
- On Stream Instructions - (Tom Jochman, Dick Rickert, Rich Knauf and his brother) These four gentlemen went to the young fisherman and asked if they could use some help with casting, attaching bait etc. and this was a tremendous help. They were all busy for at least two hours helping the kids.
- Suggestions - Assign some adults ahead of time to make sure we have this function covered because it turned out to be significant.
- Digital Photographs - (Jim Mondok and Nick Loprire) Both Jim and Nick brought their digital cameras to the event and they took a lot of interesting photos. They will send them to John Siebert so he can post them on the TU website.
- Suggestions - Assign some adults ahead of time to make sure we have this function covered because it turned out to be significant.
- Portable Toilet Facilities - Several of the parents asked the Grove City Sportsman's Club members if we had toilet facilities. We did not but we can rent a Port-A-John for about $50 according to a source familiar to Jim Tidd.
- Suggestions - Consider doing this next year.
If anyone has anthing that I forgot about, or they have a suggestion for next year, please send it to me now so we will not forget about it.
Thanks to everyone that helped to make our first event a success.
|
