asting 4 Kid Kasting 4 Ki
A Fly Fishing Fund B y C hr i s Photos By
Marshall Glen Hales
Volunteer Guides with Holland Bloorview kids
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Jason Smith is a fly fisher. He’s also a father. At the age of six, his son, Alexander, was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, which caused him to have multiple strokes. After he went into a coma, he was rushed to an acute care hospital where his life hung in the balance until he was eventually pulled back from the brink.
Main Lake, Franklin Club
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Left to Right: K4K Volunteers - Erin Cartwright, Real Matters; Kathryn Burt, Franklin Club; Helena Borges, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation
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AS CEO of Real Matters (a leading provider of property insights to the North American mortgage and property casualty insurance industries) and a partner in British Columbia fly fishing lodge Nicholas Dean, Jason is a highly successful and energetic businessman. It didn’t take him long to get the ball rolling.
Lower Pond, Franklin Club
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While the acute care hospital actually saved Alexander’s life, the meningitis had severely affected his ability to function so that he was unable to walk or even talk. But it didn’t end that way, for he was given his life back at the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, where a team of 14 specialists created a customised therapy plan for him, teaching him to walk and talk again. Today, Alexander has made a full recovery, is a straight “A” student, skis, plays hockey and, above all, fly fishes. It was only natural that Jason felt a deep debt of gratitude to the medical professionals who had restored Alexander to life, but just feeling grateful was not enough for Jason and his wife, Heather. They wanted to do something in return, so they got involved with the hospital as volunteers. But Jason wanted to do more. In 2009, while casting for trout at The Franklin Club (a members-only fly fishing facility 45 minutes northeast of Toronto, Ontario), he had a brainwave—why not organise a fly fishing event there in which business professionals could, for an entry fee, learn to fly fish with one-to-one instruction from experienced fly fishers, with the fees donated to Holland Bloorview? After all, golfers had been organising similar events for years. AS CEO of Real Matters (a leading provider of property insights to the North American mortgage and property casualty insurance industries) and a partner in British Columbia fly fishing lodge Nicholas Dean, Jason is a highly successful and energetic businessman. It didn’t take him long to get the ball rolling. He recruited other businessmen who were also keen fly fishers, including other members of The Franklin Club, whose board of directors enthusiastically agreed to host the event. Together they solicited sponsors from their professional contacts, especially Jason’s business contacts among major North American banks and professional service firms, who covered the cost of rods, reels, lines and flies, as well as catering the breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also quickly lined up a couple of dozen experienced fly fishers to act as volunteer instructors and guides, including professionals, many of whom were recruited by The New Fly Fisher’s Fly Tying Editor, Sheldon Seale. The result was Kasting 4 Kids, designed to raise funds for and awareness of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, which is a global leader in breakthrough research in children’s medical rehabilitation. Through their business contacts, the organisers advertised the event among companies throughout Ontario. In most cases, companies funded members of their staffs to attend the inaugural event at The Franklin Club in 2010, which raised $100,000. Encouraged by the success, Jason and his coworkers organised a sequel in 2011. This time they raised $175,000, with 80 participants—even though they had to endure unseasonable cold temperatures and snowsqualls!
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2012 I was invited to attend the third Kasting 4 Kids event in June 2012. Although I’m not a member of the club, I’ve fished there a number of times before as a guest and can attest to the excellence of the fishing. Consequently, I welcomed the chance to return. As the morning session was already under way when I arrived, I pottered around talking to the organisers in the clubhouse, expertly and enthusiastically chaperoned by co-ordinator, Jamie Foss of Real Matters. Eventually, I was able to escape down to the water, where I bumped into the MC for the event, actor Timothy Webber, who appears regularly on the CBC TV show, “Arctic Air”.
Tim is a passionate and experienced fly fisher, who grew up on Canada’s east coast, where he was taught to fly fish with his dad. After studying at theatre school in Montreal, he eventually moved to the British Columbia, because that’s where the action was for TV and film actors. Currently he lives on the Sunshine Coast, north of Vancouver, where he fly fishes lakes and oceans when he’s not filming.
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Tim Webber ties one on
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As we chatted, I noticed he was using the traditional Newfoundland overhand retrieve to fish a sunk dragonfly nymph—something you don’t see much of west of St. John, New Brunswick. To complement this venerable technique, he was using a well-worn, ancient Hardy Princess reel. In the 30 minutes or so I spent with him, I watched him catch and release more than half a dozen fat rainbows. After I left him, I made my way down to the lower of the club’s two stocked ponds, where half the participants were enjoying one-on-one instruction from the volunteers. The other half (those with some fly fishing experience) were being paddled around the larger, upper pond by more volunteer mentors, refining their skills in the pursuit of big rainbows. Volunteer mentors and clients on the Lower Pond
Of the former, some were receiving casting instruction on the grass, while others were practicing casting into water and retrieving a fly. I was able to chat with a few of these, while carefully dodging erratic back casts. Bruce Chin, of Deloitte Professional Services, a business partner of Real Matters, confessed that his primary motivation for signing up for the event was community service, but that his interest in fly fishing had been piqued when he attended a previous event. Now, he’s planning to get out on the water with a fly rod on his own. Kevin Smith, business associate of Jason, said he signed up both to help raise funds for the hospital and because he was interested in learning to fly fish after his uncle had bequeathed him a fly fishing vest. Miles Hiscock, also signing up for his second year at the event, while emphasising the importance of community fundraising, admitted that it was a great excuse to get out of the office. He’d had no previous experience in fly fishing, but was warming to it.
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Tim uses traditional overhand retrieve
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Clearly, the twin opportunities of learning to fly fish (or upgrade skills with seasoned professionals) coupled with the community service of fundraising for a worthy cause, made for a very effective combination. Later, I had the pleasure of watching the volunteers help a group of youngsters from Holland Bloorview catch trout on the fly from the shore. A couple were in wheelchairs, but their delight was palpable and infectious. At the closing banquet, Kasting 4 Kids presented Holland Bloorview with a cheque for $200,000, bringing their three-year total to almost half a million dollars.
Left to Right: Craig Corporate Banking and Fly Fishing Guid President & CEO, Ho
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g King, Director, Diversified Industries, Investment and g, BMO Capital Markets Gary Baldackin, K4K Organizer de Timothy Webber, Actor and K4K MC Tracey Bailey, olland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation
Volunteer mentors with clients.
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The Future Towards the end of the day, I sat down with Jason and Alexander in the shade of a large willow tree at the edge of the upper pond. After Alexander had proudly announced that he’d caught his first trout on a dry fly just two weeks previously, Jason waxed enthusiastically about fly fishing as a family experience and how The Franklin Club provided that in spades. Jason also expressed a strong interest in sharing his experience of using fly fishing as a fundraising event, as a viable alternative to golf. If Kasting 4 Kids could make such a huge success of it, so could other groups of fly fishers, especially those with strong connections with business and industry. The opportunities throughout Nor th America and beyond are considerable. Holland Bloorview Hospital Foundation Kids
While the rewards are considerable, organising such an event is a major undertaking, and Jason has the following advice for any groups thinking about staging one: 1. The work is considerable, requiring at least three people working on it full-time. Jason was fortunate enough to be in the position to free up members of his own staff at Real Matters for the job. 2. A group of well-organised, committed, reliable volunteers is essential, not only of experienced fly fishers as mentors/instructors, but also for a variety of supporting logistical tasks. 3. Corporate sponsorships are needed to provide financial underpinning, as well as for seeking out fly fishers in their own organisations to get involved. 4. The charity for which funds are being raised needs to be actively involved, as the Holland Bloorview was at Kasting 4 Kids. 5. There must be active engagement by the host organisation such as The Franklin Club provided for Kasting 4 Kids. 6. There must be a multi-year plan.
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Any group of fly fishers interested in taking up the c hallenge can contact Jason through me, The New Fly Fisher editor at editor@jencor.ca.
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As an encouragement, consider that while some might think that fly fishing might not be as effective as golf as a focus for fundraising, this is not necessarily the case. The reflections below support this.
Spiderman Redeemed: Reflections on Why Fly Fishing is Better than Golf Unlike golf, fly fishing is essentially non-competitive and, consequently, a much more effective stress reliever—and, therefore, a better medium for fundraising directed at busy executives. Workplace stress is best dealt with in activities which demand concentrated focus on something other than the workplace. While golf can supply this, the disadvantage is that it demands such focus only occasionally and intermittently—for instance, when the player addresses the ball on the tee, on the fairway, on the green, or in the rough. By far the bulk of the time is spent waiting around for the other players to take shots, riding a cart (whatever happened to walking) around the course, or scrabbling in the rough or hazards looking for lost balls—all of which allow the cares of the world to creep back in. Fly fishing, on the other hand, demands total attention all the time. This is especially true for beginners, who need to focus initially on developing casting technique. But even when the rhythms of casting have become instinctive, the mind is still fully occupied with reading the water, matching the hatch, and making the perfect presentation. There are few breaks—and even those are given to quiet absorption in the environment— the movement of the water, the wind in trees on the opposite bank, the hazy hills beyond, and the panorama of the sky. This is what makes fly fishing the perfect anodyne for stress. Another problem with golf is that it can increase stress through the frustration
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which comes from a missed shot, a ball lost in the rough, or being outscored by a business rival. True, there can be similar frustrations in fly fishing, but these are less significant, less frequent, usually peripheral, and easily overcome. A number of years ago, there was a TV commercial for a well-known investment company, which featured a retired Spiderman on the golf course, obviously trying to learn the game. He was far from a happy camper, lagging far behind his longsuffering companions, overwhelmed in a misery of divots and lost balls. I never believed that commercial. For it seems he’s still around making movies. And if and when he does retire, I’m sure he’ll never take up golf, or even if he does I’m sure he’ll drop it pretty quickly. No, he’ll be out there on the river somewhere, contentedly curling a fly over the water in the direction of a rising trout. That’s what golfers, and fundraisers, need to discover—that fly fishing’s better than golf.
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