Topic: Melanoma FundRaising Party (Read 3381 times)

September 19, 2014, 12:28:08 PM #15

Update:

Looks like Jim is just over the half way mark to his goal! Every dollar counts!

Bill

September 19, 2014, 03:51:30 PM #16

What's the NCKA guest list looking like for tomorrow night?

September 20, 2014, 10:59:37 PM #17

You guys missed out! Jim did an awesome job as usual & for such a worthy cause! Had a profound and heartwarming time spending a few hours talking with Connors parents, Tracy & Scott Cockerham. Connor is one of the few who Jim runs in memory of.

Thanks Jim!

September 22, 2014, 01:24:25 PM #18

THANK YOU Bill for showing up!!!

It was great to see you there and stoked that you got a chance to hang with Tracy and her husband Scott!!

It was a GREAT day!

Young Aaron from NCUH showed up before first light and paddled out with me and a buddy from Watsonville as soon as it was light enough to see.

Headed towards one of my favorite spots and I did the first drop to see if we were in the right spot...we were.

My marker weight was right at the far end of the crack and I peeked inside and saw a fat 23.5 inch cabbie back in the corner. Popped him in the cheek and brought him up then gave Aaron a description of the area we were in...

While I was stringing up the cab I hear Aaron come up and peek over and say the NICE Male Sheep he has blasted right in the face!!!!

STOKED for him!!

On the way out we had talked a bit about Sheep and I have seen several Female Sheep in this area but that is the first Male I have personally seen there!!

So cool that his first Sheep was that solid Male on his first drop of the day!!

After that it was a slaughter fest of blues and olives, my buddy Jesse paddled up and joined us and we all had fun diving and hunting until Aaron and my other buddy got seasick and headed in.

Some more friends showed up, we shot some more fishies (I got a nice 18 inch olive right at the end in addition to a mess of blues, a 17 inch rubberlip, a small ling and the 23.5 inch cab), and then Jesse and I paddled back into shore.

Back on shore we took a few pics and then headed out.

Aaron was nice enough to donate the rockies he shot to the fish fry AND showed up at the party to help me cook and serve AND brought half his sheep over for us to eat it sashimi style!!

At the end of the night we had $875 in cash and checks and $630 donated online...over $1,500 for melanoma research and awareness!!

http://www.aimatmelanoma.org/en/aim-for-action/1158/1159/nikemarathon-2014/7735.html

It was a really fun day in a bunch of ways and super jazzed for Aaron!!!

Thanks again to all who supported this effort...now I just need to figure out how I'm gonna run the race in less than a month when I haven't ran since April!

Sincerely,

Jim

ps...for those that may question the legality of using rockfish for a fundraising fishfry rest assured that we went out of our way to follow this guidance from Carrie Wilson:

Quote

August 21, 2014

Question: If a non-profit organization puts on a dinner and only requests donations to attend, can a group of divers legally donate abalone to the organization to be used for the dinner? (Anonymous)

Answer: Yes, but only as long as the dinner is not advertised as being an abalone dinner and as long as paying for the dinner is optional. You may charge for the rental of the facilities, tables, chairs, etc. and charge for the plates, napkins, cups, etc. Abalone (like all sport-caught fish and game) cannot be bought, sold, bartered or traded.

The event was advertised online (Facebook and here) as simply a fundraising party, donations were optional, everybody who came and wanted to eat got served and no one was denied food because they didn't have $...and the few fish that were left over Saturday got eaten by my buddies and I yesterday.