Spend a day fishing with pro angler, sports celebrity
Fishing for the Cure tournament to raise funds for the Courtney Morrison Legacy Fund set for July 18 on Little Lake
Pro anglers and athletes will team up on Little Lake on July 18 for the fourth annual Fishing for the Cure tournament to raise funds for research into leukemia and lymphoma.
The tournament supports the Courtney Morrison Legacy Fund, named after the 16-yearold St. Peter Secondary School student who lost her battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009.
“This was all started in Courtney’s memory,” said Murray Henderson, Courtney’s stepfather.
“She wanted us to keep her legacy alive and that’s what we’ve tried to do. When she was going through treatments at Sick Kids hospital, she was hurt that she had to see all these younger children going through the same thing she was. She said she really wanted to try to help all these kids, and that’s why we started this event. Hopefully in the near future there will be some sort of cure. If we can do a little bit every year to try to help that, then that’s what we want to do.”
Participating pro anglers include Dave Mercer, J.P. DeRose, John McGoey, Jim McLaughlin, Bob Mahoney, Chris Giles, Chris Vandermeer, Cam Brownson, Tom Brook, Dan Risorto and John Noel.
Among the pro athletes expected to participate are hockey players Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks, former Peterborough Pete and Toronto Maple Leaf Kris King, Bryan Bickell of the Chicago Blackhawks, Peterborough Laker Shawn Evans and former Laker John Grant, said John McNutt, who organizes the tournament for the Henderson family.
In addition to the fishing tournament, the day will feature events at Del Crary Park including Bassmasters fishing lessons, a Peterborough Fire Services truck and a barbecue. A dinner and auction will be held at the Holiday Inn.
For $1,000, the purchaser spends the day fishing with a pro angler and a sports celebrity. Tickets to the dinner and auction cost $60.
Some of the athletes and anglers involved in the tournament will also take part in a celebrity server night at Boston Pizza on Chemong Rd. from 5 to 8 p.m. on July 11.
McNutt said 12 boats will be on the water for the tournament.
“My sense is that half of them have been spoken for and the funds are in,” he said at the Holiday Inn, where details of this year’s tournament were announced. “So we are looking still for another half a dozen people who would like this opportunity of a lifetime.
“The event keeps growing,” he said. “I like to think we listen to what we hear from our people and try to make things better every year.”
Last year’s tournament raised $10,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada. A cheque for that amount was presented Wednesday to Andrea Swinton, the society’s Ontario region executive director.
“Our focus is on research and patient services,” she said. “We fund researchers in Ontario and across the country who are looking into cures for blood cancers.
“We are so excited that this event has been around for a few years and that we are the charity of choice. We really are grateful to the community and to all the sponsors.”
To sponsor a boat or to buy tickets to the dinner and auction, call Jeremy Card, an event planning assistant at Kawartha Fest, at 705-874-6960, or go to the Kawartha Fest offices at 250 Sherbrooke St., Unit 6.