Hooked on Fishing event set for return | News, Sports, Jobs

ELKINS — After remaining canceled the past two yrs simply because of COVID-19, the annual Hooked On Fishing Not On Drugs party will make its triumphant return to the Phil Gainer Neighborhood Center on Saturday.
“We are thrilled we can provide it back again this yr,” Chris Lee, facility manager of the Phil Gainer Community Heart, told The Inter-Mountain. “HOFNOD is an wonderful function and it has a huge impact on the local community. It permits the little ones to come in and master about fishing, searching, backpacking and, most importantly, the anti-drug message.”
This year’s celebration, which is scheduled to acquire location from 10 a.m. right up until 4 p.m., obtained a boost from the Randolph County Commission previous 7 days when it was awarded $5,000 by commissioners to assistance with the festivities.
“I respect the energy and the get the job done you guys are carrying out for HOFNOD,” commissioner Cris Siler informed Chris Lee and Owen Peet, who ended up attending the meeting on behalf of the Elkins Parks and Recreation Commission. “Anything we can do to help our young ones get away from Tv and video games and get them back outdoors, like it was when we were kids, I’m all for it. I’m genuinely happy that we can help you with the funding request.”
The driving force behind HOFNOD considering the fact that 2019 has been the Elkins Parks and Recreation Fee and the Randolph County Spouse and children Useful resource Community, who are the co-organizers of the celebration. Displays that includes fish, birds of prey and snakes will be established up at the function, and several interactive activities are prepared, these types of as wall climbing, archery tag and gemstone mining, just to title a few.
Some of the organizations collaborating in the HOFNOD celebration consist of: the United States Forest Company, West Virginia Division of Purely natural Resources, Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, Elkins Police Division, Nationwide Rifle Affiliation, West Virginia Wildlife Middle, Elkins Fire Office, Division of Environmental Defense, West Virginia Fish and Wildlife, 4-H, Youth Well being Expert services, West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center, Double Faucet Gun Club, and the Potomac Highlands Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Space.
“This 12 months we are also opening our stage to area dance teams who will complete during the celebration,” Peet, the youth application coordinator for Elkins Parks and Recreation Fee, said. “We will also be presenting a assortment of doorway prizes that have been donated by community organizations. And the NRA has awarded us a grant that will let us to raffle off 6 life time hunting and fishing licenses this year.”
Lee reported that prior to the 2019 HOFNOD celebration when the EPRC and FRN took around, the once-a-year festivities experienced become far more like an expo and that there were being true talks of ending the party.
“The Elkins Parks and Recreation bought word of HOFNOD potentially shutting down and we needed to make certain that this significant occasion stayed in the local community,” Lee said. “So in order to do that we imagined it was important to kind of renew the emphasis back to what it was originally meant to be — chatting about the anti-drug concept, and how out of doors recreation can be a excellent solution to go after other than those inadequate way of living alternatives.”
Lee stated shifting the party back to its original framework compensated dividends in 2019 when shut to 1,500 people today attended the celebration.
“We modified it from no a lot more fundraisers for individual teams, no more marketing stuff, back to the strategy in which anyone who is collaborating gets an training option for free of charge,” he mentioned. “And we obtained great opinions, particularly from the mothers and fathers of kids who attended.”
Lee mentioned the ERPC and FRN are doing work on producing HOFNOD a non-earnings group in the upcoming.
“We are making an attempt to recruit new associates so we can place a board collectively and get that non-financial gain standing so that it is a lot easier to get grants,” he said. “I would adore to do the job with local legislation enforcement and perhaps get a member of the Sheriff’s Office or the Elkins Metropolis Police on that board simply because they enjoy such an important function in HOFNOD.”









