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TCTU SPONSOR
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| President's Corner |
11/9/2007 |
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TCTU has been busy since our last newsletter. On March 24th, we had our most successful fundraising banquet ever. I applaud our Banquet Chairman, Dan Vogtman and the rest of the Banquet Committee for a job well done. There were 209 attendees, (37 more than last year). We raised a good deal of money for up coming habitat projects and a conservation camp in conjunction with Pheasants Forever. Dave Norling’s hand-crafted bamboo rod was won by a well deserving, and all around good guy, Andy Roth. I’d like to thank all of the attendees, and donors (corporate and private). Without all them and the Banquet volunteers, it wouldn’t have been such a successful event.
Less than one week after our Banquet, TCTU sponsored a booth at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in Bloomington. TCTU was the fortunate recipient of the bamboo fly rod built by the “Cane Crew” during the Expo. TCTU sold raffle tickets for the donated rod which helped us raise money. The winner of the rod was Fred Bertschinger. Needless to say he was ecstatic to hear the good news and has already proved it’s effectiveness at catching fish. TCTU Member, Al Gustaveson donated a fly fishing combo that we raffled off to kids. The winner was Tom Kruger of Bloomington. It took him about 5 minutes to get back to the Expo to claim his prize. I have a good feeling he used it on spring break. Speaking of Al Gustaveson, I’d like to thank him and long time TCTU member and past President of the Minnesota Council of TU, Elliott Olson for their part in signing up over 100 new TCTU members during the Expo. Thanks also to all the TCTU members that staffed the booth at the banquet. Finally, a special thanks goes out to Tom Helgeson from the Expo and Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine for strategically placing our booth for maximum exposure.
TCTU has held a few chapter meetings this year at the Lodge Bar in downtown Minneapolis. In March, Scott Thorpe from the Lake Superior Steelhead Association talked about steelheading’s past, present and hopefully the future of his favorite pastime. Winner of the Plano nymph box was Ben Spears. In April, Jeff Hastings came up from Westby, Wisconsin to talk about the Driftless Area Restoration Effort. Jeff works for TU and is responsible for numerous grants that TCTU will put to good use in 2007 and 2008. Winner of the Plano nymph box was Mike Lawrence and winner of the $25 Sportsman’s Warehouse Gift Card was Rachel Rannow. The scheduled speaker on May 22nd is Brad Bowen the “Afton Angler.” Brad will talk about fly fishing for Muskie and other species in the area and NW WI. The Chapter meetings are fun and educational. I encourage you to come and bring a friend. Free drawings for fishing equipment are held at each TCTU Chapter meeting.
This Summer TCTU will have a few projects that need your volunteer help on. On June 2 or June 9th, we have been asked by the DNR to help with beaver dam removal. Details will be on the TCTU website. Later in June we’d like your assistance in helping the habitat improvement project on Pine Creek just across the border in Wisconsin. In July, the Hiawatha TU chapter is extending the habitat improvement on Trout Run and has asked us for assistance. There is also a habitat workshop open to those volunteers that would like to help TCTU in its pending projects. I’d like to see carloads of volunteers for those projects. Later this summer or early autumn, TCTU will start its own project on Hay Creek…Finally! That project will stretch into 2008. We really need your help on these projects. Please check www.twincitiestu.org for volunteer opportunities.
TCTU is looking for volunteers to help with fundraising. If you have the time to send a few letters out each week, we’d love to hear from you. Retirees would be perfect for this and it could be very rewarding to you and Trout Unlimited. Things are looking very bright for TCTU, we just need each one of you to set side a few hours per year to help protect our cold water resources.
~Steve Carlton
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