6/29 Heroes on the Water - Thanks Atlantic Bait & Tackle

[JonDevin]

The great folks who make up NJFishing.com never cease to amaze me with their generosity. As most of you know Pete at Atlantic Bait & Tackle offers a 15% discount to all honorably discharged veterans who pay in cash. While this alone is a great gesture by a vet himself, to thank others for their service, he doesn't stop there. For the last two Heroes on the Water - New Jersey events, Atlantic Bait & Tackle has donated ice and bait.

Today's event was held at the Sandy Hook Coast Guard Station where the Coast Guard and their Auxiliary hosted us. This put us in a great spot for easy access to prime fishing grounds. Civic Duty Partners provided the food and bar-b-qued up a great lunch. We had about 20 vets, along with their families attend. Those 20 vets, along with a personal guide for each meant there were a lot of kayaks on the water and every one of them was fishing with bait provided by Pete.... and we caught fish! We caught big fluke, croakers, weakfish and more.

HOW is a 100% volunteer organization. No-one is on any payroll. Each chapter funds itself through the kind gestures of their communities. It's people like Pete Crosta who enable our organization to help our wounded heroes to relax, rehabilitate and reintegrate. This program started as a test at Brooks Army Medical Center. They found that, after a day of kayak fishing, these soldiers were more receptive and responsive to their treatments. HOW now has about 40 chapters throughout the US. We even have chapters in the UK and Australia. HOW helps thousands of servicemen and servicewomen.

Oh, did I mention what Pete did on my way out the door? He provided me with a bunch of empty tags and tells me to write the name of each vet on different tags and pull one out of a hat. Then he grabs a beautiful fluking combo and says, then give em this... Well Frankie Rivera won it and he was stoked!

Attached is a pic of Frankie with his new rod and reel, a group shot and a pic of just some of the catch.

Pete.... we can't thank you enough for your service and for your generosity. It's people like you who enable us to cast a wider net, running more events and reaching more of our heroes who have given so much for our freedoms.

THANKS!

[njfisherman1975]

Great job Pete!!!! Lets make sure to support our sponsors!!!

[dfish28]

Damn, tears in my eyes, god bless the vets !! And that's why I do a big detour from Woodbridge to Middletown to SRI just to stop there, good lookin Pete , ill be in soon, those mojombo killies don't last too long, thanks again, for everything !!!

[tropics]

Nice Job Jon and Pete
Looks like you guys even caught some fish

[howarda780]

Congratulations on anther great outing.

Pete has helped out whenever the Hero's need anything. Thank You PETE!!!


On a side note:

Jon, works incredibly hard to make this organization a success. One day after work, Jon drove down (from Mahawah, 75 miles) to have a meeting with the CG Auxilliary at Sandy Hook. He was able to get permission for the Heros to launch at the beach at the SHCG Station. This allows the Hero's to have a short paddle to the area where they enjoy to fish, compared with a 45-60 minute paddle.

Now, all HOTW events will be that much better THANKS TO JD.

[The Sinker Man]

Jon.
Thanks for all the time and hard work that you do to put this together. It's not easy , but I'm sure everyone appricates it. Looks like you had a real good day for the catching..Thanks to the Coast Guard for all the help that they provided.. And thanks to Pete at Atlantic Bait and Tackle who is always there to help out for a worthy cause...

[Gerry Zagorski]

WOW... What a great event! Awesome to see our Vets being supported and very heart warming to see there are selfless people like Pete, Jon and all the volunteers who make these sorts of things possible.

There are certain certains in this world.

- It's always 85 and sunny at Atlantic Bait and Tackle.... Pete makes sure you feel that way every time you call or step into his shop. Jon's the same way...His glass is always half full, not half empty. Positive attitudes like Jon's and Pete's are contagious and positive things like this happen around these sorts of people because of it.

- Our VETs deserve the very best

- The cure for everything is salt water - sweat, tears or the sea (Isak Dinesen)

Great job all and God Bless our Vets.


Davey 2 poles flying the flag in Glowstah

[action]

great job gang the vets sure dsevere a good day of fishing

[billfish16]

Jon,

As always great job by HOW. You are a very special person indeed! Sorry I could not be there, spent the entire beautiful day at work. Looks like you did fine without me.

A BIG THANK YOU to the sponsors esp. Atlantic Bait and Tackle and Civic Duty Partners.

I will certainly be paying many visits to Atlantic Bait and Tackle.

Looking forward to the next event.

Bill

[shrimpman steve]

Jon,
Pete is great when it comes to things like this, thanks Pete at atlantic bait and tackle.

But you deserve a big pat on the back as well!

great job by both of you to support our heros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!