A common misconception we encounter on a daily basis is the role of volunteers on child trips. We receive offers on almost a daily basis from very sincere and well-meaning people around the country to “help out on a child hunt or fishing trip.” The offers include cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, cleaning game, taking pictures, running errands, and many other things that are assumed to be parts of a child experience. These are not only among the most frequent “offers” we receive, but also generally the hardest to decline, because they spring from the heart and are sincere attempts to serve and to become involved. [click to continue…]
Once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing experiences for children who have a life-threatening illness.
Kristin Busby pensively watches her two sons and their father enjoy a day of fishing after Carson’s successful deer hunt
How does one put into words their innermost feelings, the feeling of overwhelming gratitude, the feeling of appreciation and the feeling of being loved after only just a few short days together? I don’t know, but I hope after reading this, one will understand how much the Catch-A-Dream Foundation means to our family.
Just a month prior to our scheduled departure to Little Flat Creek Ranch in Missouri, Carson suffered a very rare and serious side effect to one of his chemotherapy drugs. He almost lost his life due to his liver shutting down. His little belly was so distended it was difficult for him to move and he had to work extremely hard to breathe because there was so much fluid build-up on his lungs that he only had one-quarter of his lungs functioning. [click to continue…]
Tom, Anna, and Donnie
My name is Tom Pate, a volunteer Host from Albany, Georgia. I want to share the really WILD set of circumstances and “coincidences” that God pulled off to get Anna Wilkerson’s Catch-A-Dream trip put together, and to have me involved as her Host. This beats anything that I have witnessed in my entire life!
In the summer of 2009 my son had been hammering me to make a return trip tuna fishing on the oil rigs in La. with his step-brother and our buddies. I finally relented and he called over and got our captain’s only open dates booked, the last weekend in September, 2009. Around the end of August, Catch-A-Dream called to ask if I could host a bear hunt in Wisconsin at the same ranch where I had [click to continue…]
I was born in 1996 with Cystic Fibrosis, a chronic illness that is the number one genetic killer of children today. When I was diagnosed at 3 years old, my mother was told my life expectancy was 6-8 years due to the CF and other serious medical problems. Most people with CF live at least to age 18. This meant I shouldn’t plan on going to college, playing sports, I shouldn’t expect to have a husband and kids, and I certainly shouldn’t count on living a “normal” life. [click to continue…]
