Rathdrum Prairie News: Here’s a chance to get kids hooked on fishing

It’s time for fishing fun in Rathdrum.

Registration is open for Rathdrum’s fourth annual Youth Fishing Derby, sponsored by the Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

The fishing derby will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 9 in City Park.

The free event gives kids ages 1 to 16 the chance to go fishing, get helpful hints from experienced anglers and maybe win a prize.

Each year, it attracts hundreds of excited kids and their parents. “Last year, 1,000 people attended,” said Rathdrum parks and recreation director Lance Bridges.

City workers will dam the creek in City Park to create a temporary home for 1,000 trout that the Department of Fish and Game will deliver. By the time the children arrive, the fish will be hungry enough to bite at anything.

“Each kid is guaranteed to catch two whopping fish out there,” said Bridges. “And each fish is at least 10 to 12 inches long.”

The Royal Neighbors and volunteers from the Parks and Recreation Department and the Department of Fish and Game will help the young anglers bait hooks, cast and clean their fish.

Call the Rathdrum Parks and Recreation Department to sign up at 687-2399.

31 years of community service

Each spring since 1976, members of the Pine Tree 4-H Club of Post Falls have cleaned and made improvements to Kootenai County’s pauper cemetery as their community service project.

The county buried indigent residents there in the 1930s and ‘40s.

The first year, the 4-H’ers installed a flagpole and a gate with funds obtained from a Chevron Oil Co. grant. Each year since, about 25 to 30 kids, 9 to 18 years old, have raked, mowed, trimmed and made repairs to the cemetery. Over the years, they also have hauled in tons of dirt to make the area easier to mow and have replaced small temporary grave markers with metal crosses that the kids welded and painted.

Most of the names of the 53 people buried there no longer are known, but the work of the 4-H’ers does not go unnoticed.

“One or two families usually come down from the Kellogg area every year and put new flowers on. They wrote us a letter one year and thanked us for cleaning up the cemetery,” said longtime 4-H leader Eugene Smith.

‘Meet Me at the Prom’

Mountain View Alternative School is abuzz with anticipation. The play the students have been working on for months, “Meet Me at the Prom,” will be presented next Thursday at 6 p.m. at the school.

The play has sparked a lot of enthusiasm because it was presented by Lakeland High School’s junior class in 1959, and nearly every member of that original cast, plus the director, has accepted an invitation to attend.

Donations will be accepted at the door.