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MAD 2016 Charleston Event Summary
The Charleston Chapter of Military Appreciation Day, Inc. would like to thank the 39 brave captains who put 110 Active Duty Troops on the water on a chilly November morning, and made our event another huge success. Boat captains left from 5 different ramps around Charleston County, and we were able to have pier captains and Troops at the Mt. Pleasant and Folly Beach piers. Adventure Harbor Tours used their big pontoon boat to transport surf captains and Troops to fish the beach on Morris Island.
Friday evening at the Captains Meeting, each Captain received a newly minted MAD Charleston Chapter ”Commemorative Coin”. A spectacular spaghetti dinner was provided by LG’s / Hanahan’s, and we had music by “Old Dogs, New Tricks”. After supper, we were blessed to have Mr. John Polosky give us a brief history lesson of MAD.
Saturday evening before dinner, we gathered the troops outside for a group photo, and while we had the them still, the captains were able to hand out MAD Charleston coins to their Troops. After a quick prayer, everyone was treated to a hot and delicious BBQ dinner provided by the Pioneer Smokers, and music from “Fat Alice”.
We had twenty-two door prizes for the Troops: four sets of cornhole boards (they were signed underneath by the captains and crew Friday night) and eighteen rod & reel combos.
We would like to thank Carolina Composites for their continued support, and Rivers Edge Marina for hosting our event again. Thanks to Mark Hood for building the cornhole boards, and Hadrell’s Point & Penn who made the rod and reel give-away possible. Thank you also to Adventure Harbor Tours, SAIC, Way Back Burgers, Sign It Quick, Lowcountry Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, Ritt Ritter, Nick Verano, and those who traveled from Virginia and North Carolina for their support of MAD Charleston 2016.
We look forward to seeing everyone at MAD 2017 Charleston, which will be on Veterans Day, November 11, 2017.
MAD 2016 Lewes: After Event Report
Once again a BIG THANK YOU to all volunteer and supporters who once again made another MAD Lewes, Delaware a successful event. Even with Mother Nature continuing to deal us with higher the preferred winds and seas our great team of MAD volunteer Captains pulled of the day, and found places to put our honored guest and their families on some fish, that’s right and their families!
Thanks to Fishermans Wharf Fleet in Lewes, Delaware this year we were able to initiate our member & family fishing division on board one of their head boats. The younger children also joined the crew of The Pirates of Lewes Expeditions in the fun quest of finding the treasure. Upon completion of the Pirate cruise, they transferred over along with some others to a cruise and snack lunch on board the Cape Water Taxi, for a very entertaining and educational eco tour of our precious Delaware inland water tributaries. While families were been entertained by our great Lewes Water Front supporters, our heroes were out fishing with our regular fleet of volunteer boats, and with the great team of kayak guides from Delaware Paddle Sports and Heroes on The Water, Cent. Pa Chapter… And of course no MAD event is ever finished without our traditional Southern BBQ celebration, hosted by the American Legion Post 17 Lewes, with great food cooked by both Back Bay BBQ and our newest supporter Slower Lower BBQ Team, and they great musical entertainment of “Dirty Deal”. Approximately 125 honored military guests enjoyed another memorable MAD event, Once again THANKS to all that once again made this possible.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
MAD 2016 Tidewater a huge success!
Military Appreciation Day in Tidewater Virginia had 24 boats and close to 100 Troops fished on Saturday, August 27th and the event was hosted at Wallace’s Bait and Tackle, located in Hampton Virginia. Dozens of family members participated in numerous family activities including boat rides, face painting, balloon art, cotton candy, a dunk tank with volunteers Julie Booth and Hector Reyes getting wet, an ice cream truck, cornhole games, and a SpongeBob Squarepants bounce house!
The day started early for the volunteers with Scott Krieger helping setup the radio equipment at 4:30 am. AJ Cole setup the Troop check in, and Alan Cole Jr, his Wife Betty along with many others were setting up lights, and getting ready for the flurry of activity.
Troops started showing up, boats calling in and we were underway! As dawn approached, we had numerous boats already out fishing and Dawn, Richard and Bret sure all the volunteers were busy and things were in place.
Once all the boats were out fishing, we started to set up family activities and listen for fishing reports. The first report of the day was spanish mackerel and then we started hearing about the cobia!
A quick hot dog/bratwurst lunch was had and then we waited for the families to arrive and they did! The first customer was the bounce house, then boat rides had a backlog, but everyone had a blast!
Then the Troops started showing, the first boat back was the headboat Rudee Whaler and they enjoyed landing various fish species so we fired up the cleaning table……then the cobia started showing up. I believe there were about 8 keepers landed, with the largest being a citation 52 lbs!
We started serving the meal and Chapter President Jack Bartell was thanking all the participants, volunteers, and supporters. Then AJ Cole took over and started doling our door prizes for the Troops. Numerous items from fishing tackle, to gift packs, restaurant cards were given away and the grand prize was a $400 guided duck hunting trip!
The Governor of Virginia declared it officially as Military Appreciation Day also! Each volunteer received a tee shirt courtesy of Calcutta, and a nice thank you certificate.
Then the cleanup began and packing everything away. The volunteers made everything look and feel seamless, and were hard workers. We’re resting for now, but the MAD compass has turned and now we await the Southport NC event happening on September 10th, hosted by Southport Marina.
MAD 2015 Charleston: Event Summary
MAD 2015 Charleston Chapter Event Summary
One. Simple. THANKS. That was our message to the Troops!
To the captains, volunteers, donors, our fellow MAD Chapter members and supporters, the MAD Charleston Chapter would like thank you for making our inaugural event a huge success, consisting of 34 boats providing 82 Troops with a great day of fishing.
If you did not attend, here’s what you missed:
Friday’s Captains’ Meeting started with a brief history of MAD and a few rules were announced. In the crowd were two SCDNR officers who presented a “Governor’s Proclamation” declaring Saturday, November 14, 2015 as Military Appreciation Day in the State of South Carolina. We were very humbled to receive such an honor; thank you Gov. Nikki Haley. After the meeting, we dined on some fresh subs and wraps, washed them down with sweet tea, and watched a beautiful fall sunset.
Saturday morning started off cool and our captains faced high northeast winds, making fishing extremely difficult. Despite the added challenge, at 7:04 am we had our first report of the day, a 22″ trout. Other captains were able to find the fish; Troops caught and released speckled trout, weakfish, redfish, sheepshead, black drum, bluefish, black sea bass, and more. On shore, our volunteers passed the time with cornhole, posting incoming photos from captains, and preparing for the arrival of hungry captains and troops. Mid-afternoon, one of the best cooking teams in town, the Pioneer Smokers, rolled in. Slowly, captains and troops began arriving back at Rivers Edge Marina. At 5:15, huge portions of pulled pork, smoked beef brisket, green beans, smoked mac’n’cheese, dirty rice, and homemade tater salad were served. By 6:30, over 120 souls with tired arms and smiling faces had been served a superb meal. Once again, we were treated to a fantastic sunset as the day ended.
Our out-of–town help included Lewes, DE Chapter President Hector Reyes, who traveled the furthest, 600 miles, to be there to support us. We were very honored to have Mr. John Polosky, one of the original four MAD founders, travel from Harkers Island, NC to show his support. Tidewater, VA Chapter Vice President A.J. Cole came to lend assistance on the tech side with the rolling slide show of the day’s catches. In addition we had help from Master Boat Coordinator Scott Krieger (Sandford, NC), Julie Williams (Henderson, NC), Mike Stein (Morehead, NC), and David Call (Southport, NC).
“THANK YOU” to Tracey Nelson at Rivers Edge Marina for promoting and hosting the event. The biscuits he dropped off early Saturday morning were a wonderful addition! And he invited us back for next year…
“THANK YOU” to our other Supporters;
SEATOW Charleston, Charleston Sign & Banner, Prowess Sportfishing, WEST Marine, SC Sportsman Magazine, and Coastal Angler Magazine.
One huge hurdle we jumped was a “special fishing license waiver” we obtained exempting the troops from purchasing a one day license. “THANK YOU” to our Board Member George McDonald in Fort Mill, SC. He was responsible for working with SCDNR in Columbia. Thank you Mr. Alvin Taylor, Director of SCDNR. This event could not have happened without the waiver!
Our MAD Charleston Chapter event was the last of five MAD events that are spread over four states. We have identified areas where we can improve our future events, and need to find new supporters and volunteers. We’ll start planning MAD 2016 Charleston soon and if you’d like to join a growing team of energetic volunteers, do not hesitate to contact us. Please follow us on our MAD web site (www.militaryappreciationday.org), “like” us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MADCharleston), and tell your friends. Next year we anticipate the boat numbers to double. That means more troops get to go fishing and that’s what this event is all about.
Once again, thank you for your support of our United States of America Military troops. These men and women put their lives on the line for us. Please remember to thank them each time you see them.
Charleston Chapter Team Members:
Gene Morrison, President
Andy Bajoczky, Vice President
Chris Coates, Boat Coordinator
Janet Charbonneau, Treasurer
George McDonald, Board Member
MAD 2015 Lewes: After Action Report
Great MAD history continues …
I want to say THANK YOU to all volunteers, donors and supporters that once again made MAD 2015 Lewes a total success, with a show of appreciation to our Honored Military guests and their families.
I also want to send a BIG MAD THANK YOU to our fellow MAD Chapter members who traveled to support our Delaware event;
A.J. Cole – Tidewater Chapter
Tena Craft and Julie Booth – Morehead Chapter
and David Call – Southport Chapter.
At our Captains meeting we had the pleasure to share great deli snacks and door prizes, provided buy our great donors and supporters and we also had the honor to recognize our local Sea Tow Captain for his support in last year’s event.
On Fishing day once again the high winds presented a challenge to our fleet of volunteer boat captains, but the great spirit of the day was not defeated as 18 boat captains and 11 kayaks along with seven kayak guides gave all their best to find some inshore spots and put our honored guests on some good fishing spots. At 11:30am some spouses, children and volunteers boarded the Cape Water Taxi and had what many called a great educational experience of our beautiful inland Bays Eco systems. At our BBQ celebration we had the honor to pay tribute to our leading founder Rodney Carroll and provide our troops with a great BBQ meal with door prizes and great musical entertainment by Judy Sings the Blues .
Our MAD 2015 season now continues to its final event at the Charleston, SC inaugural event.
See you in Charleston!
Hector Reyes
Chapter President
MAD Lewes Delaware