A day on UL with Submoa and chairbound children

[pezvela]

Today Submoa and I were on UL with a boat full of children who are terminally ill. Thank you Robbie for your help and support! Without good men like you we could not accomplish our mission.
These are my thoughts of the day.
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[font "Calibri"]Each day on the big lake is different, often filled with intense emotion. I have wept with valiant warriors as they share their experiences of battle, telling of their brothers in battle dying in their arms and listening to distraught mothers tell of the insidious disease or accident that put their beautiful children in a wheelchair forever.[/font]
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[font "Calibri"]Sunday my boat was filled with warriors and today, terminally ill children. A phone call from a mother told me her son wanted to fish with me on the only boat around that can accommodate wheelchairs. The date was set and before it came, two more children were invited. One little effervescent boy was born will a half of a heart. Open heart surgeries left a huge scar that ran the length of his torso. Today he awaits a donor heart to keep him alive. The other two were a little older, young teenagers, chairbound as MD destroys their muscles leaving them unable to walk or function. As is generally the case, their parents, siblings and grandparents were along to share with them this experience.[/font]
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[font "Calibri"]The water was flat and the winds calm as the boat left the harbor in search for fish. The children had never been aboard a boat and I sensed some fear, but as time passed they calmed and begin to enjoy the experience. Fishing was slow as we moved for spot to spot, but before the day was gone they had all caught fish and their s burnt away the sorrow that filled me as I contemplated their plight and their future. How a parent endures the torture that must fill their every waking moment knowing that soon they will lose their beautiful children evades me. This horrible disease that takes so many of our children has no cure, only hope and very little of that. Today they are with me and I will move the earth to insure that they will have a memory, these families, that will stay with them when the children are gone. [/font]
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[font "Calibri"]These things we do are a gift that God has given us and when we share these gifts it fills us with joy and our lives are richer. This steels us with determination to continue as long as we can and gives us purpose that cannot be described. I would have it no other way.[/font]
[font "Calibri"][url "http://www.handinhandoutdoors.org"]http://www.handinhandoutdoors.org[/url][/font]
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[albinotrout]

You are the man! Way to go. You made their day.
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[PACKFAN]

Thanks for a great post with pictures, it is a wonderful thing you guys are doing. Have a great day Steve.
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[Kent]

Steve, rich blessings await you for all of your kind acts.
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[Tin-Can]

Steve, you are a MAN among men, and a Man after God's own heart. For your selfless acts of kindness you are to be highly commended. It is reassuring to find that there are still some people in this world with a heart of generous kindness.
Your efforts with the Veterans and the childern can be best appreciated by those that have family members or are themselves in one of those lifes circumstances.
Good on ya, and would be proud to meet and shake your hand some day.

Retired USAF
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[Flounder70]

So awesome!
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[Boatloadakids]

Pez

I have great respect and admiration for what you are doing. The experiences these kids and vets are having because of your efforts will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

I lost fourteen-year old fishin' buddy five years ago to a tragic accident -- toughest thing I have ever had to deal with. I realized then that while death might take him away from me it could not take away all the memories we made while fishing together. When I fish now it is usually with a "boat load of kids" and I believe we are making memories that will be with them long after I am gone. I hope that some day many years from now they will be fishing with their kids and telling them about the fun times they had fishing with their grandpa on Utah Lake. This is important to me.

Again, great job you are doing. I'm sure the "rewards" you see every day make it all worthwhile.

BLK
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[submoa]

Steve, Thank YOU for doing this! Anyone can be a deck hand and it was my pleasure to do so. I would recommend anyone who has the ability to help Steve by volunteering, do so. Ray, his daily deck hand, said he does every day what the two of us were doing yesterday. I don't know how he does it. Steve could also use several more poles and reels so he doesn't have to switch up from pan fishing set ups to catfish set ups. It would be very helpful if we could get him some of this gear. That would save Ray a considerable amount of work. Re-tying is no big deal, but it takes time when you're trying to do 10 poles or so. I know I've got a few extras I'm going to dig up and get to him after I put fresh mono on there. Pole holders he's in need of as well. I am guilty of stressing out about my daily life (I would guess we all are), going out with Steve for a morning will change you're perspective, this I can guarantee!

Thank you Steve for making it happen, this is an awesome thing you're doing, I hope you don't lose perspective of that with how much work you're putting in.
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[submoa]

Very sorry for your loss. I can't imagine
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[cantcatchem]

Just think if you only took away with you half of the joy that you gave these children...that's a boatload by itself.
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[mtncat1]

your the man thanks for what your doing god bless
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[pezvela]

Thank you all for your kind words. This great love of the outdoors is a gift someone else gave to us by showing us the wonders of it when we were young. Now the gift is being passed along.
The experience of being with these valiant veterans and especially the disabled children brings us indescribable joy. The gift and the love grows and cycles forward. For this we thank God....daily.
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