Challenged Outdoorsmen of America - Northeast Texas Outdoors Chapter held it's inaugural Fishing Derby for challenged adults on Saturday on a private pond near Gilmer, Texas. The results were measured in smiles, hugs, high fives, and lot's of shouts of happiness! Also although not as important the 16 fishermen from ARC of Gregg County and Cerebral Palsy of East Texas caught 16 catfish from 1 to 5 lbs with most being greater than 2 lbs!

Below is a link to photos from the day. Just check out the smiles and know it was a blessing to be a part of this event.

http://www.coa-neto.com/2009AdultFishingDerbySmallPhotos.htm

If you know of a person that would benefit as a participant in our events please follow the info on this webpage and get in touch. We have openings for all of our events for more to participate.

If you would like to volunteer - we will find you something that will fit your talents to provide a blessing for others. Just get in touch through the website above. God is blessing this ministry tremendously - you are welcome to join in the blessing.

That's another reason why catfish are teh greatest fish in the world. It's an everybody sport.

had never heard of this organization. that's an incredible thing y'all do. that's what fishing is all about.

This sounds like a wonderful organization....Kudos to you guys for being a part of it....

We organized in January of 2008 after serving the larger organization since 2003. This was our first adult fishing derby. We have held 2 previous fishing derbies for special children. We plan to add more events as word spreads and funding increases. We have been organizing and executing group whitetail deer hunts for challenged adults and special needs and underpriveleged children since 2003 under the umbrella of COA. Our local chapter has held 1 adult and 2 youth group hunts since January of 2008. We have also provided 1 individual hunt for special children and the young man took a doe. Through our relationship with a nationally prominent hunter we provided a turkey hunt in the spring where the young man took 2 gobblers.

Our expertise is the ability to take groups of challenged individuals both children and adults whitetail deer hunting. We have the wheelchair moving equipment, blinds and property to facilitate about 30 hunters a season. We have about a 30-40% success rate on these hunts. We also take children hunting on private property in special circumstances (sort of like make a wish or hunt of a lifetime).

Two children - a young lady 12 years old with cerebral palsy and her brother who had his leg amputated due to cancer are hunting this weekend for feral hogs near Daingerfield. We were blessed by a land owner who heard of the need volunteering his hunting operation for this wonderful purpose. I know it is being filmed and hopefully I can get a bit of the video.

If you want to know more just visit http://www.coa-neto.com . There are links to previous events both youth and adult and also contact info if you can suggest a participant or want to help us out. I promise a blessing either way!

Cat if it were a little closer for me I would love to help with it. I hope to be able to get involved in one of ther events this year if everything goes well. Sorry i haven'e been on the site lately. I will try get fired back up. Been very busy lately!

It has been a hard year on everyone Med. We had the least volunteerism on this last fishing derby due to having to move it two times because of the weather and the landowner's schedule. It hit where some of the volunteers had previous commitments but it all worked out good. I know the fishermen had a blast for sure.

We are planning another youth fishing event for September after the weather hopefully cools a little. Probably looking at September 26th since archery season is scheduled to open on Oct. 3 this year (from what I can figure). It's not firm yet though.

If you are free in December we will be hunting with a group of challenged adults for 2-1/2 days and also with youth in January for 2-1/2 days. We would love to see you. We have a major campground to either tent camp or r/v camp for free. All the food is provided for both participants and volunteers - so you wouldn't go hungry!

Thanks for thinking of us Med.

To anyone else reading this if you want to help out then we can use you. We are just a group of regular guys trying to make a difference in the lives of folks that would otherwise not get to do what we love doing! Fishing and Hunting! We serve folks from Tyler, Longview, Marshall and surrounding areas. We have folks come from as far as San Antonio and Vidor to hunt with us.

Outdoor forums are always slow this time of year. It just comes with the territory. I can tell you that the catfish are turning it on though in LOP. LOL!

No problem. I am looking forward to eventually getting to meet everyone that I have been talking to. I am looking forward to it!

I got a phone call that one of our two youth hunters was successful. They were hunting again this afternoon so I am expecting more good news

I will wait to let the Dad share the story and haven't posted anything yet on the other forum.

These will be really neat photos and hopefully videos.