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- Nearly 1,500 special needs individuals attended Kids Fishing Day at Salem Pond.
- Volunteers ensured participants caught fish, fostering confidence and outdoor engagement.
- The event, in its 34th year, has grown significantly, benefiting many communities.
SALEM, Utah County — Nearly 1,500 kids and adults with special needs and disabilities spent their day reeling in fish and enjoying the outdoors on Tuesday at the annual Kids Fishing Day at Salem Pond.
Attendees from local school districts had the chance to learn how to cast a fishing line, reel in a fish and choose to keep or throw back their catch. Around 500 volunteers from several organizations helped run the event by preparing fishing rods, pre-hooking fish, assisting attendees and cleaning any fish being taken home for dinner.
Emory Rose, a volunteer from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, says volunteers pre-hooked fish for most participants to guarantee everyone would have the experience of catching a fish.
"I just think it's really empowering experience for them to have," said Rose. "It's a really important event. It helps them gain confidence ... and catching a fish makes you just feel so cool. So being able to give that to them and empower them to feel confident in themselves has been really good."
Rose helped a number of girls fish for the first time at the event. She said the highlight of her day was helping a young girl named Lila reel in a fish and watching her proudly take the fish home to her family.
"She was super cute, and you could just see her face light up when she caught the fish and brought it in. It was great," Rose said.
This year marks 34 years of the annual event for special needs kids and adults. Though the main activity and location of the event has changed over the years, its goal has stayed consistent: to help people with special needs get outside.
"I think when it first began, we started realizing that kids with special needs just didn't have the same opportunities (to be outdoors)," said Sarah Flinders, education coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service, who helped run the event. "So we wanted to bring them outside, to get them out to the woods, do a barbecue, teach them how to fish, give them a new experience and hopefully show them something that they could be interested in that would kind of inspire them."
The annual gathering started with just 16 kids from the Tooele County School District, according to Flinders. Over the years, the event has expanded as more school districts and community organizations were invited to participate and as the number of students in special education programs continues to grow.
"Truly, we've noticed over the last eight or nine years just the growth in our special needs units in the schools. It's doubled and tripled in size," said Flinders. "So there are a lot of kids who we can serve for a day, and they look forward to this every year."
Megan McMillan, a paraeducator for Alpine Transition and Education Center East in American Fork, attended Kids Fishing Day with her students for the second time this year. She explained that while students at the transition and education center go on community outings every week, most programs aren't able to take students on field trips often.
"It's just a fun experience," said McMillan. "It's fun to get our students out, and even the ones that don't want to fish are just happy to be out in nature. They have it so organized, and everybody is just so kind, happy and willing to help us. ... It just helps them to be a part of something bigger."
Alpine Transition and Education Center East is a post-high school education center for 18- to 22-year-olds with special needs that teaches students employment skills and how to live independently. For many of McMillan's students, the event was an opportunity to try something new and form their own opinions about the world of fishing.
"I think was pretty good," said Lee, a first-year student at Alpine Transition and Education Center, about the experience. "I mean, people say fishing is a sport. Nah, it's a hobby. It's like hunting — you just take the fish and go."
Kids Fishing Day is organized in partnership by the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Natural Resources, National Wild Turkey Federation, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Salem city. Kids with Disabilities Adventures, a local nonprofit for those with disabilities and special needs, helped facilitate and raise money for the event, which costs around $50 per attendee, according to its website.
To accommodate for the large amount of participants, the Division of Wildlife Resources brought in rainbow trout from Fountain Green Fish Hatchery for the day. They also provided attendees with fishing licenses for the day and several local businesses — including Macey's and Crumbl — supported the event by donating time, manpower and food. All the organizations work together, according to Flinders, so that students and teachers can enjoy the free event without having to worry about the details.
"It's a good day, and it could not happen without all of the agencies and all of the volunteers together," said Flinders.
Kids Fishing Day happens every year on the second Tuesday of May. Flinders encourages any program for students or adults with special needs to contact the forest service in Spanish Fork to receive an invitation to next year's event. Contact information for the Spanish Fork Ranger District can be found here.
