donbarone

Hey guys, the new site looks great, nice job. db

Late last night, actually about 8:15pm CST, I was in bed almost asleep (4:30am call for a 6am launch this morning) when my iPad lit up with an email from Glenn May. Glenn & Keri are original board members of Tackle The Storm Foundation, and good friends, so I picked up the iPad and read the email. Took awhile to get back to sleep. You see Glenn wrote that the road trip raffle raised $920 for Tackle The Storm. I want you to know, to get a REAL feeling for what that money will do…we are faced with having events for children in 4 states this summer. FOUR states. At each event we normally see about 200-300 kids. So you go on a road trip, you have some fun, catch some fish, have a bunch of laughs, put out some money for some prize things, no big deal. Except for us, it was a HUGE deal, and this is why, the money you put out for the raffle will buy enough rods and reels that we will be able to take care of one entire event with that cash. Here's the bottom line, YOU will have put back on the water THE YOUNG ANGLERS OF AN ENTIRE TOWN. Think about that…a website…a board…through the kindness of the members have put the magic wands of childhood in the hands of an entire neighborhood of children who fish and who have lost that ability due to a tornado. I am forever in your debt. Tackle The Storm is forever in your debt. Glenn said that he didn't want any thanks for this, but since I really only listen to Keri, I will publicly thank Glenn & Keri, for their heart, for their caring, their friendship, and the legacy they will leave in one small town in the South. To you who gave of your cash, you just made the biggest catch of your life…200 children…every cast they make…every fish they catch will be because of what you did, they could have left fishing altogether, and some might, but you gave them the opportunity to stay with it, and that should leave you speechless as you have changed lives. The storms, they will come for us. The Earth, will turn on us. Mother Nature, will slap us around. But when the wind stops, when the rain dries up and the clouds move away, one thing will be left standing, will always be there after the storms, and that is, the Kind in Man. You are proof of that. Thank You, db

Hey, I just want to say that I wish I could be there this year but I'm going to be spending the week with the Elites at Toledo Bend, actually staying at Tommy Martin's house with Shaw & Paul. I'm very humbled by the wonderful things you all are doing for Tackle The Storm. I keep reading things that say, "Don Barone's Tackle The Storm," and that couldn't be further from the truth. It is all of our's Tackle The Storm, I couldn't have come close to doing what we have done without the help and support of folks like you. And let me tell you what you have done. To date YOU have put the magic wands of childhood, fishing poles, into the hands of 1,446 children. You have put over a THOUSAND kids back on the water after storms knocked them off the pond. Tackle The Storm's latest event will take place in Peoria, Illinois on June 28th and it will be for the children who lost everything to the tornadoes that hit the area last Fall. We are having the event at a park filled with ponds made especially to teach children how to fish so the child will be handed a brand new rod and reel, tackle box and baits, and will within feet of that be able to fish. From what I've heard from some of our helpers on the ground out there we could expect upwards of 200 kids to attend the event, and your donation from this road trip will go a long way in putting rods and reels into those kid's hands. One other thing, and this isn't for public announcement yet, Glenn and Keri may not even be aware of it yet, so please keep this amongst each other, but since you have been such a big help, I thought you should know. We are a 501 c 3 public charity recognized by the feds. When you attain that status you have to provide pretty detailed information on what your charity does…and we have…we put children back fishing after storms take that ability away from them. But right now we are in the process of making a slight change, really an addition to our mission statement filing to the feds. And with fingers crossed it should be in place by the Illinois event. Here's the addition: Tackle The Storm Foundation will continue to put children back on the water after a storm in their lives BUT, we will now also put back on the water the child's…daddy…mom…grandpa or grandma. We will put back the person who took the child fishing because it is my belief that they too have lost the ability to fish…and more importantly…continue to take the child fishing with them. For many, fishing is a family experience and we will have the ability to put the FAMILY back on the water. Sitting in an Alabama warehouse waiting for the OK to go, are right now, 250 ADULT Spinning rods and reels and 250 Baitcasting rods and reels…and more are on the way. I didn't do that….YOU…made it possible. And for that I am eternally grateful and constantly humbled by your giving heart. Again, wish I could be at the road trip, but please know I am certainly there in heart, in gratitude. db

I was just scrolling through all of this, and to be honest, it kicked my butt. Not so much because of the money raised, which is great especially now at what we are facing July 27th in Oklahoma, but what got me, emotionally, right in the heart, was the amount of people doing it, and having a good time doing it. I write so many times about, The Family, Of Us...the world wide community of anglers that I know is out there...but scrolling through this has now, for me, today and always, put a face to The Family, Of Us. Your faces. I want you to know something I believe deeply, Tackle The Storm Foundation is NOT Don Barone's Tackle The Storm...I say that over and over and yet I still have somehow become the face of the foundation. From now on when a reporter, or donor, or sponsor, says db's Tackle The Storm, and I refute it, you folks have given me a tremendous gift because I have bookmarked this thread, and I will send it to the person with jus a simple little note: "You want to see the face of Tackle The Storm, here they are...Tackle The Storm belongs to these people, and hundreds of other people like them, I had nothing to do with setting this up, they did. They are Tackle The Storm." I write about, in life every once in awhile you come across magic, magic called, Bits of Wonderful. You, are my proof of that, db

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Montgomery, AL for the Elite event here this week, about to go out and do a story, including a visit to the gravesite of Hank Williams Sr., when Glenn sends me a link to this on the board. And I'm floored. I have written stories about what I call, Bits of Wonderful, and that is exactly what you are doing. Bits of Wonderful. It is your Bits, that make Tackle The Storm Foundation work…not anything I do. It is The Family, Of US, not me, that makes this a success. I have covered the savages in this world, and I have covered the saints…trust me, saints outnumber savages. This past weekend, because of the generosity of The Family, Of Us, Tackle The Storm Foundation quietly provided 300 rods and reels to the 300 surviving Elementary School Children who survived the Sandy Hook School massacre. I was told stories of children scared by the shootings, coming to the event clinging to their parents, only to leave with a fishing pole slung over their shoulder, and a smile on their face. 300 children…6 fish caught…and if you ask anyone there, it was a huge success, the children loved it. I call the fishing rods and reels we give out, Magic Wands of Childhood, because with every cast, comes hope, and it is hope that is needed after the savages have left. I don't know if the rods and reels we get from this will change a child's life…I DO KNOW that it will change a child's day…and for every child's day that we may change, we have a shot at changing the future day by day. Please, do not call me a hero, or even someone to look up to, YOU…Brian…and all of you, are the heroes, not me, I just help facilitate things, I make it possible for you, the heroes, to step up with your Bits of Wonderful. And I leave you with this…it goes out on every donation letter I send out: "And in the endThe love you take Is equal to the love you make." The End The Beatles Thank you, for all the love you will make. db