Kids’ fishing trip is reel good time

Each spring for more than two decades Bear Lake has played host to a welcome break from the school routine for special needs students from Spokane Valley, and this year was no different.

“It’s a great community activity for our kids,” said Melissa Danelo, a special education coordinator with Central Valley School District. “Every kid who comes through our system has an opportunity to do it.”

Clutching baggies of worms and following the lead of about a dozen volunteers from the Spokane Valley Fire Department, about 40 students Friday lined the north Spokane County lake’s bank. Students in grades three through five from five Central Valley schools participated, all from classes for students with a wide range of disabilities.

“When you get them in an activity like this, they’re all the same,” Danelo said. It gives many of the students a chance to do something they might not otherwise experience, she said, and it also allows the children to interact with students from other schools.

Plus, it’s a hit with the kids.

“I reeled a little bit, and wham!” Zach Beach said after making the first catch of the day.

His 5-inch perch was greeted with applause and shrieks of excitement from his teachers and classmates on the bank.

“I like watching the kids,” said Tag Baugh of Valley Fire, who took over organizing the event three years ago.

He rounds up firefighters who volunteer a few hours of their time off and helps corral fishing poles, hats and bait donated by the White Elephant each year.

The students pulled in their lines at about noon for sack lunches assembled by employees at Spokane Federal Credit Union.

The trips started in 1984 when firefighter George Orr, now retired, got the first trip together. In years since, they’ve had up to 105 kids participate, braved rain and stray fishhooks and even had author Patrick McManus join them a couple of times.

“A bad day fishing is better than a good day at school,” Orr said.