August 8, 2010

Purple Heart Anglers fishing trip, August 3rd and 4th, 2010.
We would like to take a minute and thank the people that participated in the recent gathering in Spalding to honor a few of our veterans that received purple hearts during their service to our country.

We got involved with this project about a year and a half ago when approached by Randy Houston, of Purple Heart Anglers.  He created this non-profit organization to put together events where the Purple Heart recipients would be able to go on fishing and hunting excursions at no cost to them except getting there.

It took us this amount of time to get the first one done and are looking forward to many more.

Not a single person I approached about helping with this project refused.

We could not have made this event possible without the help, work and generosity of the people and community of Spalding and the following;

A very special thanks and great job to American Legion Post 162 of Spalding, to the men and women of this organization that supplied the food for the Purple Heart vets, the place to cook and feed everyone and the honor they showed these vets and volunteers, we can not say enough about how hard they worked and how generous they are.  Thank You.
These professional fishing guides volunteered their time and equipment and donated a day of their short season to take these men fishing on the morning of August 4, 2010, again we cannot thank them enough.  Thank You.

(In alphabetical order)
Aguilar Fishing Adventures – Bob Aguilar
Eagle Eye Guide Service – Jerry McMillen
Fish Traveler Guide Service – Tim Noxon
Flying Eagle Guide Service – Ron Beck
Hook and Ladder Guide Service – Cliff Spediacci
J & J Guide Service – John Minster
S & S Guides – Steve Williams

I asked for help to provide places to stay for the vets, we had some at the Park but needed more, as many of them came a long way and the meal was served the night before the fishing trip.  The first time I asked Dave LeRoy of Heritage Land Co. was over a year ago.  He did not hesitate or even ask which dates we were going to need, he just said “yes, absolutely”.  Thanks Dave and Darlene.
We veterans all have experiences, friends and opinions about our time of service but I can tell you that there were more than a few times during this event that tears were welling in the eyes of participants.  We were approached by a few of the Purple Heart vets with comments like, “no one has ever done anything like this for me” and “we have never been treated like this”. 
Their comments and thanks go out to all who helped honor them.  A very heart felt THANK YOU to all of you from us.

Mike and Kate Arnold
Eagle Lake RV Park