Help for one of our own
 

I know we have had a large number of fundraisers lately and the last thing I want any of you to do is to think the site always has its hand out. That behind said I wanted to make you guys aware of a situation so you can help if you can and or choose to do so.

A few weeks ago Josh Lincecum's son was diagnosed with Autism. Josh's son is three years old and a great kid by all accounts. The Lake Charles area is blessed to have a very good intervention center in the St. Nicholas Center that works with autistic children. That being said the cost for treatment is extremely expensive (over $2,000 per month for only 10 hours of care).

The center will be having a fundraiser and auction on May 18th. The center will credit Josh's family with half of any money raised by people that donate in the name of his family.

So that being said, if any of you would like to donate a charter fishing trip, merchandise or other service for the auction please do so. I am sure that they would also take a cash donation.

For further information please contact Josh or Micah (Mikedatiger) here on the site. I have also attached a flyer for the fundraiser (PDF).

I am also intrested to here the groups reaction on us having the charity tournament this year benefit the center of behalf of Josh's family v/s St. Jude. I am big supporter of St. Jude so I would like to help them as well but one school of thought is that supporting this organization would keep our money in the greater Lake Charles area and help one of our own. Something to think about, I welcome your feedback.

Josh is one of the founding members of our site and a quality person, I wish the best to him and his family and I hope to help him as much as I can as I know he would do the same for me.

Thanks,
Casey

First of all, God Bless you and your family Josh. I will come up with something out of my pocket to help this fundraiser.

Hang tough bro, the calvary is on the way.....;)

I'm in.

I think it would be a great idea for the tourney to support this.

Prayers go out to you Josh and to your family.

I'll have something for the auction and will try to locate more donors/donations.

If I can do anything for you or your family in the mean time don't hesitate to give me a call.

I think I may be able to come up with something to donate

Also I am down to make the tourney benefit Josh's family

I have met Josh several times and believe him and his wife to be good folks. SC family let's all keep them in our prayers. Chicken, I'm for holding the tournament to benefit Josh's family this year. I will donate & cook a large black iron pot jambalaya to sell plate lunches at the event.

Thanks Meaux - It would actually be to benefit the center where his son goes (so the entire community would benefit from it). The center is a non profit group as we cannot have a charity tournament benefit someone that is not a 501C corporation.

I kinda thought that once I typed it... but it was too late

No problem, I just wanted to be clear that we were not giving him any money personally.

Thanks for all the support guys. I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around this whole situation. I know my family deeply appreciates everything this site does and stands for. This will just add a new group of great folks that will get the chance to see how great the southern sportsman can be. This center is a great place and does amazing things for these kids.

Does this center have any type of website, just would like to educate myself a little on what they do, so I have a better idea of what to inform people of while we solicite donations.

I'll be praying for yall Josh

http://www.stnickcenter.org/

thanks Bob!

Thanks....

Josh , anyway I can be of help please let me know! And I'm deff. Down for the sc tourney this year to be for this cause!

praying for you and your family bro..keep strong...

x 2 here, brother.

God Speed.

I'm in for benefiting Josh and his family via S.C. tourney and donation. Prayers with you and your family Josh! If we can put together a Toledo Tournament...we can donate a percentage of the proceeds from that.

Prayers being sent buddy, im all in for the S.C. tourney.
Josh if you need anything you got my number man!

Also if you want Chicken ill be willing to donate a trip if you want to raffle it off.

Let's have something added to the redfish event feb 11th

Thank you Kade that is a great idea.

I think having the tourney. benefit this cause is an awesome idea!!!! This subject hits real close to home with me. Josh, give me a call if you need something. I know exactly what your are going through.

Prayers sent Josh .
Casey put me down to donate a trip for the cause .

Josh im not tryin ta preach but god will not bring you to something that he cannot bring you out of. He constantly looks down upon us with love and compassion. Lifes many trials n tribulations are to get our eyes n hearts focused back onto him. May god bless you and your beautiful family all the days of your lives. Call if i can ever help. Also im down with the tourney n supporting the local charity!!!!!

Me and the wife will donate a Cajun gift basket for the auction. Just pm me with the info where to bring it and when.

Let me know what needs to be done. I need ideas, don't know how to go about doing this.

Josh, I am all over this with prayers. I don't quite know what you are going through but I can imagine. If you need to talk about it or just go out and fish over here on the east, let me know. Getting away for a minute will do you a lot of good.

Casey,
I will definitely be willing to donate a fly fishing trip over here on the east side for this benefit.

My family will keep your family in our prayers. I have something to donate to the auction as well, Casey. I will pm you some time today.

St. Nicholas Center
 

Guys, I can vouch for the Center. Full disclosure: Christy Papania Jones - who founded the center - is family. She is a local teacher who has created a unique center that specializes in caring for a very underserved population of children. You will not meet a more professional, caring, educated person. I think it is a great idea to support a local non-profit that is completely dedicated to caring for our children with special needs.

I showed her this thread, and she has offered to give a tour of her facility to anyone interested in learning what they do. Here is the url:

http://www.stnickcenter.org/index.cfm/TPID/1

Josh. Y'all are in my prayers. If ya need anything give me a hollar !

When people sign up we can have a fish for Eli pot..

$10 Per person and the Red with the most spots wins a prize
It dont have to be a red in your two limit for weight in

We can maybe get a rod and reel donated combo from one of our sponsors on the site to the winner

And I sure a few of us and get the winner Red mounted for Eli at Steven Germans

and have a donation pot

Put this in the tournament discussion. See how it goes.
I'm in.
We got plenty of rods donated. Just need a reel to make a combo.

I personally think soliciting sponsors for a rod n reel and other prizes for this Redfish tournament is inappropriate. There have been some step up and offer prizes and that's a great thing.

Our big event is the 2012 Saltycajun tournament and that's the money maker. I don't think it's appropriate to solicit sponsors now and then we are knocking on their door 2 months from now for our big charity event.

I also think that any solicitation of sponsers should be done with Casey's approval. He is ultimately the one that has a contract with them.

I saw several people dig deep in their pockets to help at the 2011 saltycajun tournament but I saw a few of our members sitting there with out a single raffle ticket and that's their decision.

I would like to see our prizes directed towards the 2012 saltycajun tournament. Just my opinion.

What ever..I was just throwing up an idea.......

We already have 4 rods donated.
We can use one for the Red with most spots.
Unless the sponsors want them only for the kids prizes.
I don't think they would mind one going for a good cause.
One of the rod donors is not a sponsor, so we can use one of their rods.
They just want their rods and name to get out there.
We are also getting some other prizes from non sponsors.
When I get home next week and get all the prizes together, some of us
can get together over some beers and decide what to do.

That would work.....Hell if we cant get a reel..Ill buy one to donate if need be...

This is not a Saltycajun event so Its really open to do what we want in form of getting prizes and such

Also even though a few sponsors or on this site....They also have sponsors me in events which I have ties to them also and good relationships....

Prayers sent, and will be keeping you, Roxy and Eli in them Buddy. I think all of these idea's for both tourneys are great idea's. Ray let me know how many reels you need and I can start w2orking on getting some.

Sounds like a plan to me!

Just one reel would be good, for the rod/reel combo for most spots on a Red.
We can make the tourny a charitable one, if the majority agrees.
I just brought this up cause there is not much going on this time of year.

Guys please do not make this our charity event or contact any of our sponsors without my approval. If you do I will cancel the summer tournament this year. We can help without involving the site sponsors. It is not appropriate to ask them to donate to both. I learned some of this was already going on behind my back and I am not happy about it. It is very hard to find and maintain apons

Casey, not trying to take away from the SC tourny.
Just wanted something to do. Just put it on here cause a lot of fishermen hang out here.
Just thought we could help out another SC member who found out some not so good news.

w start a paypal addy and everyone can donate for the reel...if 20 peeps put up 5 bucks you could get a citica and its done...my .02...

we got it covered already.....done deal

all the money from the $10 pot will go to Josh's Family

Ray will get all detail when he gets home later this week

Guys josh is my friend I want to help or I would not have allowed or started the thread. My heart goes out to him. I just do not want to involve the sponsors then ask the again to he involved two months later. Most organizations have one big event per year ours is the summer event. My firm and I are personally going to help josh.

Put me down to help or we can have a Bobby Flay Jambalaya throwdown. :)

Its a Gonzales "thang" :)

I can give two years of free tax returns (who would not want that) and some new fishing equipment.

Also ray if you want to make the side pot like a said to benefit josh i think that is a great idea. It is a little late in the game to make it a full blown charity tournament as you would need several pieces of information from the center and from me, etc...

It sounds like everyone is cool with the summer event benefiting the center in Josh's sons name so we will certainly move forward with that idea.