Kids with special needs reel in new memories, thanks to Bellevue fishing clinic

[Omaha Steve]

BRENDAN SULLIVAN/THE WORLD-HERALD
Lillie Frederick, left, 7, reels in a fish alongside her brother, Henry, 4, and sister Lucy, 6, all of Papillion, during a fishing clinic at the Bellevue Rod and Gun Club in Bellevue on Saturday. The event was put on for children with special needs to learn to fish in two local lakes.

http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/kids-with-special-needs-reel-in-new-memories-thanks-to/article_524318d5-1a1e-5234-b18f-c8eb744d9bc4.html

Posted: Sunday, September 13, 2015 12:00 am | Updated: 6:39 pm, Sun Sep 13, 2015.
By Maggie O’Brien / World-Herald staff writer

Anthony Gianelli caught his first fish ever Saturday.

“I got a little scared,” the sixth-grader at Bellevue’s Fairview Elementary said. The fish was a bluegill.

“I thought it was going to sting me or something. It was cool to reel him in.”

Anthony, 11, is autistic, said his dad, Timothy Hall of Bellevue. Anthony was one of 15 or so children with special needs who attended a fishing clinic Saturday hosted by the Bellevue Rod and Gun Club.

FULL story at link. See more photos of the day's good catches: http://odc.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=5002&p=6141

Video: http://studio.omaha.com/?ndn.trackingGroup=91341&ndn.siteSection=omahalanding&ndn.videoId=29694492&freewheel=91341&sitesection=omahalanding&vid=29694492

[love_katz]

1. Thanks for posting, Omaha Steve.

Nice to see news like this.

[yeoman6987]

4. Oh I hope they put those fish back in the water

Hopefully without to much damage from the hook. I can't believe they can't find a better humane activity for the kids to do. Sad!

[Archae]

2. That's a still eatable bluegill.

I love catching those, they fight like all get out.

Up by my parents' place in Oconto county, north of Green Bay, WI, every year they let kids fish like this.
My Dad was a volunteer teaching the kids how to fish.
He loved it.
Fishing was his joy in life, and to teach it to the little kids who only did this once a year, was something he treasured.

[tblue37]

3. My brother Sam volunteers all the time to help special needs kids fish down in Texas.

He has been doing it for decades, and he loves every minute of it.