Mississippi Wildlife Magazine
By Dr. Marty Brunson
Autumn 2001
The Catch-A-Dream program continues to grow at an accelerated pace! The Catch-A-Dream corner in the MWF Booth at the Wildlife Extravaganza was a popular spot during the early August event in Jackson. Many from the Bruce Brady family were on-hand to visit with interested persons and to promote the program.
Mrs. Peggy Brady, along with Bruce, Jr., Becky (Brady) Taylor and husband Mike, along with several of the Brady grandchildren, spent the entire week-end briefing passers-by, handing out brochures, and showing video of the inaugural Catch-A-Dream Outdoor Adventure. One highlight of the week-end was a Sunday morning breakfast for outfitters and guides, hosted by the Bradys and other Catch-A-Dream Team members. During the short gathering just prior to show-opening time, numerous outfitters “caught the vision” and signed on as corporate partners. We are truly appreciative of these new partners, and look forward anxiously to sharing with them the experience of granting outdoor dreams to children with life-threatening illnesses.
Also in August, Catch-A-Dream went “National!” Our first outdoor adventure was featured o national TV during prime-time on TNN and Mossy Oaks’ “Hunting the Country” show. Viewers nationwide watched as Bruce, Jr. and Ronnie “Cuz” Strickland took the Mossy Oak “Camo-Camera” deep into the woods of west Alabama to “catch-a-dream” with 13 year old Richard Dickson. Host Tracy Byrd hit pretty close to home when he said “Hunting and spending time in the outdoors is something we all intend to do more of…..but what if you weren’t sure of how much time you had left to do it?” In case you missed the show, it is scheduled to re-air on Sunday, December 2, 2001 at 7:30 pm. Catch it if you can!
And, be sure to tune in to your local ETV station on October 18 to catch the show FARMWEEK. (http://www.msucares.com/news/farmweek) which airs weekly at 7:00 pm on Thursday nights. You will see a touching feature on the first Catch-A-Dream adventure that does a tremendous job of portraying the vision and putting real faces to the program. FARMWEEK reporter Brian Utley spent the week-end with young Richard Dickson and his family at Mossy Oak’s famed Leehaven Plantation, and pieced together a masterpiece feature on the real meaning of the Catch-A-Dream program. Don’t miss it!
If you’d like to become a Catch-A-Dream partner, you have many options, ranging from direct cash contributions to donations of your time or other resources. One of the more popular ways to contribute to the program is through a gift in honor of a friend or loved one, or in memory of someone special that you may have lost. Individuals honored or memorialized in this fashion are permanently listed on the Catch-A-Dream web site. If you have property where an outdoor dream might come true, or if you know of a friend with a “dream destination,” you can become an “in-kind” partner by contributing an “experience.” We have numerous guides and outfitters that have become partners in this fashion, and we will be busy in the coming months matching wish-children with these partners that best fit the childrens’ respective dreams. And remember, any contribution to Catch-A-Dream is tax deductible!
