Each year the members of Fish-Hawk.Net put on an Ice Derby in support of a chosen local charity. This year was no exception! On March 1, 2008 over 130 participants showed up at Petrie Island to partake in the event. This year marks the 5th Derby run though Fish-Hawk, and the chosen charity was Hopewell.
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... ">Hopewell was founded in August 1999 by three parents of teens with anorexia, who became frustrated by the lack of information, support and self-help services around eating disorders available in the Ottawa region.
Hopewell was formed to provide persons affected by eating disorders with the additional support and resources they need throughout the treatment and recovery process. The need for Hopewell's services is very apparent by the letters of thanks and appreciation that they receive from their clients, and was an excellent choice of charities this year to support.
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... 1.jpg">The day of the derby started for myself and a number of Fish-Hawk volunteers at about 3:00am. We had arrived at Oziles @ Petrie Island the night before to setup "homebase" for the day of the derby...so much of that work was done already, but of course we needed to have some breakfast for the long day ahead of us, so we had planned to drop by a local restaurant for 4:00am.
Unfortunately, the 4:00am turned into about 4:30am for many of us, as the evening before brought heavy snow, slippery roads, and of course the plows. Now tell me something....as much as we are appreciative of the lads who stay up all night to clear our streets, is there any reason why they need to have 3 large plows on the Queensway side by side with no room to go around for those who would like to, taking up all three lanes and travelling at about 30km/h? The drive to St. Laurent Blvd seemed like an eternity that morning. There has got to be a better way for them to do this.
In any case, we finally made it, met up with the boyz and girls, and had the ritualistic Bacon, Eggs, and Toast. Mmmmm, bacon....gotta love it. Actually, the breakfast was OK, I've had better but it filled a hole.
We finished up, and after distributing the radios we headed to Petrie Island. Well I gotta tell ya...I've never heard so much chatter in my life. The guys were like little kids with new toys. Too funny...entertaining really, and I loved the enthusiasm I was hearing. You could tell it was going to be a good day. While the roads were still quite heavy, a small red car went speeding by me and I thought to myself "that guy's gonna to kill someone". Well for those of you who may know him, Badger Shark doesn't think to himself much, at least in my experience, he's very vocal. The radios go off again, and I think if the guy in the red car had stopped, Badger Shark would have gotten out of his truck and threw him a beating.
Easy now....let's focus on the day. <img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... by_017.JPG">
We arrived at Petrie Island and immediately started to setup the Prize and Registration Tables. We had to hurry though cause we were slightly behind schedule due to the snow, and there were people waiting there already to register and get to it. Gotta love it!
Despite the snow in the morning, it was truely a fantastic day. All went according to plan with very few, if any, glitches on the day.
<img width="300" height="225" align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .JPG"><img width="300" height="225" align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... G">Showing up to help out were several volunteers from Hopewell. It was a great pleasure to meet all of them, and we immediately put them to work on traffic, parking duty, and anything else that needed attention.
They were more than happy to help out, and sometimes even wanted more to do. It was very nice to talk to many of them as well. Different stories from their worldly origins helped pass the time away, and they were extremely interesting to hear. They're not all pictured here, but hopefully I'll work them in somewhere in this story as long as I have photos. <img width="300" height="225" align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .jpg"><img width="300" height="225" align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... 21.jpg">At about 10:00 I actually had to leave for a little while to take my son to his KubKar Races for Scouts. Back to Stittsville I went, picked up the boy, and down to race his KubKar Ambulance. He had put a lot of time into making this, and did pretty well too, winning 6 of 8 races he was in, and then enjoyed Hot Dogs and junk food.
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....but I digress...back to the Derby.
</center><center>At about 2:30 I headed back to Petrie Island after the races were over for the presentation of the awards, and I made it just in time.
During the remainder of the day, while I was away, several fish were brought in for measurement and photos. </center>
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<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .JPG"><img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... 6.JPG">Our volunteers even got out for a little line wetting. I'm not sure how they did in the end, but it looks like a nap was in order for at least a couple of them. I too was feeling a little sleepy, but men don't sleep don't ya know.
Christine from Hopewell took a stab at it too. Next time we'll need to get her a chair or something....perhaps a heated shack would be a good idea too.
<center>A rare sighting....The Big Green Monster having a little snooze!
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<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .jpg"><img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... nter>Apart from being a fisherwoman now, Christine took the spotlight on a few occasions, participating in the Awards Ceremony, talking to the media, and even getting her hands full of Pike slime.</center>
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As always, you can definately count on "Big" Jim to help us out with the events we put on. Despite all that's happening in Jim's life, he still made it a point to drive all the way to Ottawa to be with us for the Awards Ceremony and bring some goodies to boot. Jim, your dedication to the sport and support for the events we put on cannot be thanked enough. You are truely an ambassador of Anglers.
<center>Out on the ice, conditions were great, apart from the loads of snow that had fallen that day and the several cars and vans that needed a little towing, it didn't interupt anyone's spirit. Not even JP was discouraged by the snow. He had graciously been given an Arctic Cat for the day by Lake and Trail, to help with transporting people around and pulling vehicles out of the snow when they got stuck. A great service if you ask me. I can still remember his words like it was yesterday...."These things are great, I've never been stuck yet!"
Guess what?
The radio sounds after about 10 minutes of him saying this. Thanks to Terry_F for the rescue...JP will never live this down. They are truely fantastic machines though. 
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<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .jpg"><img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... r2.gif">Of course, the day wouldn't be possible without the tremendous support of the many businesses and people who graciously donated prizes, facilities, and other resources. We humbly thank them all for their contributions. We'd like to offer a special thank you to our major sponsor of this event....Ashley Furniture HomeStore. Thank you so much to all for making this Derby a great success for Hopewell. Not shown here, but contributors to the event...
Lake & Trail
Wolf
MuskyMatt
and of course the lads who run Oziles (Seabass & Matt)
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At 3:00 the crowd of Anglers congregated around the "Homebase" trailer and prepared for the Awards Ceremony. It was truely a sight to behold. The music was playing, the Silent Auction and the 50/50 tickets were being sold, and the media was out to cover the event. MP's and MPP's showed up to say a few words, and Big Jim was out mingling in the crowd giving out stuff to the kids.
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This year's prizes were awarded to 1st and 2nd place in both Pike and Panfish categories. Each fish that came in was measured with care by our "official" measurer people....that's right..I said "measurer"! Leading lengths were placed on the board outside the trailer for everyone to see, and all measurements were recorded inside the trailer with photos taken.
<center>Coming out on top were the following winners...... </center>
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<center>1st Place Pike - Trent Gill @ 2:55, just under the wire measuring 29.5"
6.5HP Generator from Idroplus
2nd Place Pike - Cody Faucher @ 1:15 measuring 29.25"
Ice Armor Bibs from Riverside Outdoors </center>
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<center>1st Place Panfish - Andrew Cameron @ 8:45 measuring 11"
Polar Ice Shack from HT Enterprises
2nd Place Panfish - Scott Lefebvre @ 2:39 measuring 10.5"
1000 Watt Generator from Idroplus </center>
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .jpg"><img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... 45.jpg">On top of these awards, was the grand jackpot of a $1000 gift certificate from Ashley Furniture HomeStore, our feature Sponsor. Shown here is the representative from Ashley Furniture HomeStore presenting the gift certificate to the lucky winner.
Also present for the awards ceremony were Royal Galipeau, Federal MP -Ottawa-Orleans, and Phil McNeeley, Provincial MPP Ottawa-Orleans.
Several draw prizes during the day made people stand around and wait patiently for their number(s) to be called. You could hear the AHHHHH and the OHHHHHH in the crowd from people who came close....but no cigar. Here are a few people whom you may recognize.
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<img align="left" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... .JPG">Much to our delight, Big Jim brought with him a fanstic Shimano Musky Fishing Rod....and look who the lucky winner was. I didn't catch the name, so sorry about that but I'll tell you that I'm quite jeolous of this prize. It was perfect.
<img align="right" src="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/a ... 9.JPG">Our 50/50 draw winner took home the bucks that day. A total of $800 in tickets were sold, with $400 going to the winner, and the other $400 going into my son's education fund.
I'm kidding, Hopewell of course benefited from all proceeds on the day. This year we ran another Silent Auction. It was a great success last year, and this year proved to be equally as successful for Hopewell. Two prizes were offered up for the Silent Auction where people would bid on what they'd like to pay for the item. Both prizes were worth about $500. The two items that were bid on included....
1. A weekend stay at Tumblehome Lodge, rental boat included.
2. A day of fishing with our very own MuskyMatt.
The successful bidders on the Silent Auction were....
- Tumblehome Lodge - Travis ???? ($330)
- Day of Fishing - Tracey Braun ($275)
<center>Congratulations to all the winners!
In total, the 2008 Hopewell Ice Derby successfully raised $4000. Thanks goes out to all the participants of the Derby for showing up and helping out a great cause. </center>
Of course I'd like to recognize the volunteers who made this day happen. This list includes....
- Yves Grandmaitre (Oziles, and his staff John and Matt)
- Don Cassidy (Badger Shark)
- JP Ostigy (JP)
- Eric (Clown Worship - our DJ)
- Bill Bratt (Erie-Eyes)
- Terry Field (Terry_F)
- Peter (Almontefisher)
- Andy Leu (Andy_L)
- Ken (First Aider)
- BadgerBait
- Kiss-the-fish
- Christine Flammer (Hopewell Executive Director)
- Joanne, Tracey, Shelley, Judy, Cathal, & Misty (Hopewell volunteers)
- Anyone else I missed, please accept my apologies.
Full size photos of everything you see here, as well as other photos, can be found in the <a href="http://www.fish-hawk.net/photogallery/i ... >Fish-Hawk Photo Gallery</a>.
With that, I'll end this chapter of the Fish-Hawk Show story, say thanks to everyone once again, and leave you with a little video placed here with permission from Hopewell. It is truely touching and will help make you more aware of the conditions of eating disorders and how Hopewell helps people overcome them. I encourage you to view it. </center>
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E.D and Me: A True Story
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Written, directed and produced by Erahm Christopher (www.erahmchristopher.com)
Bobber Out!
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