NEWWA Fishing Day

The North East Wyoming Walleye Association (NEWWA) hosted their annual Kids Day water safety and fishing class last week.

With buses bringing fifth graders from Sundance and Moorcroft as well as fifth and sixth graders from Upton, the bright warm day at the Keyhole campground was packed with fun as the 134 kids walked from one to another of the five "stations", among which they learned how to cast, tie knots and make minnows race.

Zayden DeCoteau, from Moorcroft Elementary, was one such student, who spoke to the day's events, "It's pretty good, I like the fishing [casting]." He explained that he is a fisherman himself, and enjoys fishing for bass and walleye, so this experience will help him improve at his chosen sport.

Sixteen volunteers kept the instruction lively and engaging and many of the youngsters even enjoyed a bit of dancing to the tunes playing in the background.

Todd DeCoteau, Walter Symonds and Marv Gasner manned the grill and were responsible for feeding the hungry attendees a lunch of hamburgers and hotdogs.

Event co-organizer and NEWWA president Kelly Lang handed out prizes to those who called out the correct answers about what they had learned from the morning's classes. According to NEWWA member Sharon Coleman, this is arguably the best part of the day for many of the students.

Everyone went home satisfied and jubilant after lunch, perhaps anticipating, like young Zayden, integrating these tools into their summer.