15th Annual Catfish Roundup
Our family and friends, with the help and support of our community and many volunteers, have a day of fun in the sun for some very special people. It's called the Baldwin Catfish Roundup and it is a chance for many people who spend the majority of their lives inside to enjoy some fresh air and a shot at catching a fish. This is the 15th consecutive year that the Roundup has been held on a private pond located in Stapleton Alabama. My grandmother Jeanette Grimes Cabaniss started this event to honor her beloved husband who had built her the fishing pond on the back side of their farm. The event started out small with 250 volunteers and participants and has grown to over 1200 now. It takes a lot of work to organize an event of this size and we have as many as 6 meetings a year to help organize the troops. We have a live blue grass band, the "Unknown Bluegrass Band", that donates their time and talent to the event.
This gets many of the participants out of their seat and up buck dancing. Several clowns usually show up and perform face painting and balloon tricks. And I mean real clowns not just a bunch of my kin folks but the cousins do plenty of clowning around as well.
We have several hundred fishing poles that we have to repair and keep in operation during the event.
Many of the participants have never been fishing and get a real kick out of catching that first fish. Visitors come from many different states and places. Some of these include many of our country's veterans who live in veteran homes. Others come from nursing homes and families come as a group to celebrate the outdoors and an escape. We cook the fish caught and grill hamburgers. Everyone who wants gets to participate in a cake walk and wins a whole cake. They leave with a smile on their face and a free T-shirt and cake. We have several groups who have been to all 15 events and it is a circled date on the calender for them each year.
A large group of volunteers pictured above waiting to help unload the buses and find a fishing partner for the day.
If you would like to help with this worthy event then feel free to contact me
The Baldwin Catfish Roundup will be held on October 19, 2013 in Stapleton Alabama.
The event is always looking for new sponsors and volunteers and all donations are tax deductible if you would like to donate. Come October if you hear twin fiddles and a steel guitar and the sound of people cheering and laughing it might be our family and friends having a grand time at the Roundup.
No comments:
Post a Comment