napajustin:
Last year, our friend and kayak angling expert Kiet Pham was diagnosed with fibrotic interstitial lung disease, and has been on oxygen and not been able to work. He had to sell most of his kayaks and fishing gear and has been living on limited savings. This disease was terminal unless he received a double lung transplant. Fortunately, this week, he was accepted into the program at Stanford, immediately found a donor and has two brand new (to him) lungs! He is still in hospital, but he should be able to make a full recovery and hopefully join us fishing again the not too distant future. While his prognosis is great, he will be strapped with an astronomical amount of medical debt. Kiet is an expert kayak angler who is everybody’s friend, and is very open and generous with his fishing advice, camp food and whatever he’s got in his cooler. He embodies our NCKA spirit of community and giving just as much as anyone I’ve ever met. Some of us older NCKA guys know him very well and will hopefully share stories about him here in the comments. WHAT WE’RE RAFFLING AWAY: 1st Prize - 5 nights at the fabulous Ft. Bragg Pacific Redwood Hideaway. 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms on 1 acre of redwoods, just minutes from the FISHY Mendocino coast! 10/10 on VRBO with over 60 reviews. You pick ANY 5 NIGHTS that aren’t already booked. Perhaps the Rockfish or Salmon opener? Over $3,000 value. Link in comments. 6 people max overnight capacity. 2nd Prize - Guided mushroom hunting trip with expert guide Dylan Taube for up to 4 people. Either Morels at Mt. Shasta in the spring, or Chantrelle/Black Trumpets at Jackson Demonstration Forest in Mendocino this fall. $1,000 value 3rd Prize - 2 seats on Reel Obsession Sportfishing charter fishing boat drifting live bait on the bay for Halibut this spring, generously donated by Tyja Taube. $600 value. TO ENTER: Go donate to Kiet’s GoFundMe at the following link. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kiet-get-a-lung-transplant Post a screenshot of your donation here or DM it to me. For every $20 donated, you will get one raffle ticket. On Sunday, March 10, we will live stream the drawing on the Fresh and Salty Facebook page.
Sharkie:
Damm! Alright Justin! This is excellent. Thank you to all who put this together. My wife saw the 5 night stay at the Redwood Hideaway, she is in. And thank you Dylan, and your Bro for the generosity. And to note, Kiet is whipping ass in the hospital…he is already ahead of schedule. I am guessing he will be out of the hospital in 3 weeks…then move into on site housing for an estimated 3 to 5 months. Let’s keep the fingers crossed. Ron/Sharkie
LoletaEric:
Strong move, Justin and crew. :smt008
polepole:
Thank you Josh, Ty, and Dylan for contributing packages to the raffle.
Pacific Redwood Hideaway is an awesome place, stayed there myself in Jan. I've also fished with Ty and foraged with Dylan. These are all primo packages.