Hey Guy`s
Here`s a story that may be inspiring for our future as rod builders
A few years ago I met a little girl of 7 that had just had a major accident involving a fall down a cliff and a major hip breakage, she was bedridden and receiving little or no medical attention. The result after a few years is a little girl that now is mobile in a way that is hard to describe but involves crawling, lurching, rolling and spinning around a stick( I built this from a broken piece of a graphite blank).So along with her dad we decided to give her an aim, so I built her a fishing rod and yes it`s PINK with blue trim and purple binds and gave it to her on her birthday. She was told that to be able to use the rod she had 6 months to `train` to be able to walk the beach. Although she has one leg shorter than the other by about 3 inches now she is so strong at core and upper body now that she can do anything the other kids can do.
So she came to my workshop one friday evening along with her family and the beers flowed.I noticed that she was busy with my lathe and a rod she had selected from the rack.No worries ,let it happen,who cares if a little ncp gets wasted? The result? unbelievable with the exception of being unable to trim tag ends,for her first time ever,awesome.
So now she insists that she will only ever work for me and in play I said Ok be at work 7am saturday. She pitched at 6.45am and then demanded that if she works I have to pay her 5 bucks a day. I then spent one of the most pleasurable days of my life teaching and watching her focus at the jobs she was given.(she applied cp to a 14ft rod and only went outside the lines twice). Along with feeding her 3 square(she normally only eats once a day `poor family`) I was making tea at volumes Only I myself could drink. I applied the epoxy to this rod and told the client the story on collection and the man got tears in his eyes at what he took as an honor on being the first to get a rod she had worked on.

Great story Rob, something you'll both remember always. You've done yourself proud. Lynn

What is wrong with your health care system that it would allow a young girl to grow up without proper reconstruction and rehabilitation?
You are the richest country in the world, giving away millions in foreign aid. How can you allow a tragedy like this?
Then when you get a President who pushes through universal health care, all you can do is complain...
I don't understand Americans!!!

The System is Broken
We need some one like Trump To Kick Butt

Rob
That was a tear jerker

Bill - willierods.com

Great story. So very inspiring.

Why not take the political comments to another thread instead of tainting what should stand as an example of the human spirit?

Garry does have a good point

Bill - willierods.com

I believe Mr. Warren is from South Africa.

So What

Do you want to take this -- off line Emails

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2015 05:45PM by bill boettcher.

Yes, love the assumption it is America.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Yes Garry is making an erroneous assumption, and then attacking from this major error. I think it makes him look like a fool! You know the old sayings about assumption!!!

Lynn Behler Wrote:
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> Great story Rob, something you'll both remember
> always. You've done yourself proud. Lynn


I'm with Lynn, that's great. Thanks for sharing, Bob

Sorry, it appears that I jumped to an erroneous conclusion.

Rob, I think there is an opportunity here to have her help you design a rod. Pick a blank that you think she would use for her style of fishing. Have her help pick out all the components and the thread colors. Let her do the work, telling her that it is for someone very special and that you really want her to contribute to the design and build. When it is complete, give it to her since she is the very special person that it was custom built for.

Thx Shawn a great idea will do(any wagers it will still end up pink)
Rob