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!