Fundraising for CfR

Apparently there is a saying. “Time flies when you are having fun” Well, it’s wrong. It doesn’t even start to fly. Think of the fastest thing you can and when you have this much fun that’s how fast time goes.

What is he babbling about? Well the 24-hour Fly-Tying Marathon in aid of Casting for Recovery of course.
Over the weekend of May 17th and 18th Keith Passant (that’s me) and a huge group of supporters took part in the above effort.  Members of North Wilts Fly Fishing Club, UK Fly Dressing Forum, Orvis staff and a “celebrity” did varying amounts of massively important work in raising funds for Casting for Recovery. Keith sat down at 2pm on the 17th and apart from food and drink breaks, calls of nature and other important stuff finally stood up at 2.05pm on the 18th of May. 24 hours and 5 minutes!

Why do such a thing? Well a very important friend of mine is married to a wonderful lady.  She was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2006. They both approached this ordeal with positive minds and thankfully the treatment has been a success. What this news did to my friends was hard to watch. So I resolved that if I could do something then I would. Cancer has affected my family in many ways and my mother has suffered with breast cancer too. All good reasons to try and help where possible.

Around the same time I saw an article in Fly Fishing & Fly Tying about Casting for Recovery and I thought “that’s got to be the thing”. What to do to raise funds was the next question.

In the USA (isn’t everything?) a friend I met through the wonders of the internet had done a 24 hour tying marathon for a children’s hospital. In fact he has done four. I fish and I tie flies so that’s it. Job sorted. A 24-hour tying session. Having spoken to Don Johnson, the original 24-hour guy, I got lots of ideas. I did however have to wait for my friends to get through the rough stuff successfully first. By now it is late 2007. Time doing its “thing” again!

The next job was a date and a venue. Our club do a few tying demonstrations for Orvis on their open days and the Orvis Burford manager, John Wilson, instantly suggested doing it at his shop when I told him of my intentions. Venue sorted. The date was the next thing and after a few initial hiccups we settled on the 17th and 18th of May 2008.

Eventually in January this year I got in touch with Sue Hunter and asked her if she would mind if I did this crazy thing and her answer was “yes please.” Venue, date and “customer” sorted.

Together with help from a LOT of people I got the event organised. What a lot of work! And all of it great fun. Frustrating on occasions but 99.9% of the time great fun.

Many of the major players in fly-fishing were contacted in one way or another and some even supported the idea with raffle prizes. Then there were the fisheries that supported the raffle and the individuals from near and far that did so too. The prize list for the raffle was at the final count impressive to say the least. This was reflected in the ticket sales of over 570. Along with sponsor forms and just plain old donations we have to date raised over £2000. With hopefully more to come.

The day itself was to me at least a blur. Not I hasten to add through lack of sleep. When you do these crazy things the sleep is the least important thing. The chaps at my club have been a massive help. Steve Fisher VIP who also stayed awake with me for the 24 hours, Darwin Turner club chairman who did a night time stint and then came back for the final push, Ian White who went to every shop in Burford begging them to send customers to the Orvis store, David Jones who washed up a certain celebrity’s pots and pans, Bob and Sue Moore who came down in the evening and again at 5am Sunday morning, John Edwards who came to the shop at 1 am to tell us he could not stay due to a deer having tried to trip his car up, Geoff Ray who came and tied flies on Sunday morning. Stars one and all.

Three more very important people also turned up after requests on the UKFD forum. They are Dennis Shaw, Roy Christie and David Wiltshire. These gentlemen turned up at the start of the event on Saturday and tied flies as a demonstration until late on Saturday evening. They are, I am sure, the reason for the constant stream of people in and out of the shop all through the afternoon.

Oh and of course the celebrity that David Jones washed up for. Mr Charles Jardine. Charles had promised to come down and tie a couple of flies after a day at a kids fishing day. Then he decided he would come down, go and catch a fish and then cook it for supper. He did all of this and it was for me personally a very, very special gesture by a complete gentleman. Mr Jardine is a special person. He also agreed to do a painting for auction for the event and that will take place later this month. Then he drove back home to Shropshire and still will not accept that it was an extraordinary gesture to make for someone he had never met.

Then there is the Orvis team. John Wilson the store manager who suggested the venue and gave us huge support not least by asking Orvis UK to supply a prize. An Orvis Superfine Trout Bum is a magnificent prize. Thank-you John.  Jenny, Maureen, Sue, Lillie and John who sold raffle tickets and took sponsorships at the store. And of course Margaret and her husband who provided the bacon butties at 8am Sunday morning. Magical. Finally from Orvis there was Allan Grunig, fishing manager, who also very nearly stayed with us all the way through. I suppose 20 of the 24 hours is not too bad an attempt. Even if he had been working all day. He chased and chivvied local fisheries like the Bull at Fairford, Lenches Lakes, Salford Trout Fishery, Donnington Trout Fishery and Barnes Lakes for raffle prizes and his local pub for sponsorship. It was a great effort Allan; thank-you sir.

The other prizes were varied to say the least. They came from

• Hardy & Greys
• Wiltshire Fly Fishing School
• Churn Pool Trout Fishery
• Lakeland Fly-Tying Supplies
• Cookshill Fly-Tying Supplies
• Total Fly-Fisher Magazine
• The ACA
• Beulah Fly Rods
• Sharpes of Aberdeen
• BVG Airflo
• Lechlade Trout Fishery
• Fantasy Fly Co (USA)
• Ian Shanks (UKFD)
• The Grayling Society
• The Salmon & Trout Association
• Niclas Runnarsson (Sweden)
• Martin Westbeek (Holland)
• Steve Wilkinson (FF&FT Forum)
• Peter Prince
• David Jones
• John Edwards
• Ian White
• The Norvise Company (USA)
• Nick Candlish and Straun Candlish
• 
  

And finally two people that helped a huge amount in what they did: Davie McPhail offered a framed salmon fly and was the very first person to offer a prize for the raffle. And what a prize. Davie invented a fly using the colours of the CfR logo and tied it on a hook believed to be 80 to 100 years old. His daughter Emily named the fly Cinderella. It is beautiful (see above pic). And it started the ball rolling with regard to raffle ticket sales.

The last person to get a mention (again) is Don Johnson. He was the first person to do these marathons and was a big help with suggestions on ease of running the event. Don also supplied two beautiful fly boxes as prizes for the raffle. Thank-you very much sir.

In addition to all these people that helped I got more support from two very important people. Sue Hunter and Sue Shaw. They are the UK co-ordinators for Casting for Recovery and it was really nice to see them both over the weekend. Sue Shaw drew the raffle prizes for us on the 18th. How she managed to draw Sue Hunter’s ticket first attempt is a mystery that will baffle science for years to come! They do all the work for CfR for no payment. They need a lot of help and are getting it from some areas of our sport. They need more help. LOTS more help.  I am proud to have been able to do a bit for them.
Look at the time! Two hours writing this up. And it was great fun again.