Stone Mountain Chapter - Trout Unlimited

First of all I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and will have a Merry Christmas and that you get to spend time with your family and friends during your holiday season. Thanks to all of you for helping out this year and we are looking forward to another productive year in 2010. We had a very good turn out this time for George from the National Committee for the New River and we thank them for coming down and visiting us. Our partnering up with them will benefit us both and we look forward to working again with them in the Spring and Fall of 2010.

We as a chapter approach the end of another year and I can’t help but reflect on what we have done over the past year. At the first of the year we really made strides in getting our long talked about and anticipated web-site up and running. What you are reading here is a product of the current officers making a decision to forge ahead with newer ways to reach our members and get our message out to prospective new members. Each month our number of visits grows and it is our hope that as time passes those that enjoy reading our web-site will also contribute to it and our projects. We had another successful “Kid’s Fishing Day” at Cub Creek Park in April that marked our 5th year doing this. In 2011 we are planning on helping with a similar event presented by 4H Club in Surry County that not only covers fly fishing but other outdoor sports. Our sponsorship of a young adult this year marks the 4th year we have participated in that camp by sending a boy or girl for a week of conservation study and fly fishing in Western North Carolina in June. As the end of Summer rolled around we did a “River Sweep” clean up day on the South Fork of the New River picking up several canoes full of trash from the river. The end of the year we tackled our first “Trout in the Classroom” project, a national TU project that we have brought to East Wilkes Middle School. Our long term plan is to expand this program over the next several years to schools in our chapters area.

Now that 2009 is winding down take a little time to spend with family and friends at the holidays and enjoy your time together. But don’t foget that we need to continue to move forward with projects like TIC, sponsorship of young adults at Rivercourse, river sweeps on our home waters and working on our web-site. Remember too, our next big event will be the Stone Mountain TU Banquet on February the 6th in Elkin at the Holiday Inn. This is our main fund raiser so that we can continue to grow and support worth while efforts to make sure the waters in our chapter area is as good as it can and should be. We hope that all our members will become more active in the future, whether it be postings on the SMTU web-site or helping with the many projects and events we sponsor. Our chapter can only be as strong as it is with the efforts of our members and their continue support and activism.

Your President,
Jeff Payne