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VIP Fishing Tournament Held at Outer Banks
A volunteer with Connie Collins of Kings Mountain. She caught two fish at the same time!

 

For the seventh year in a row, Cleveland County’s Social Worker for the Blind, Lucy Plyler, took four Visually Impaired Persons (VIPs) to the North Carolina Outer Banks for the Annual VIP Fishing Tournament. The group from Cleveland County had a great day of fishing off Jennette’s Pier last week. One member of the group, Connie Collins of Kings Mountain, won 2nd Place with a total of 82 points representing Jennette’s Pier. The tournament opens up four piers and two head boats to about 500 visually impaired persons (VIPs) from across the state. Only fish caught on the participant's line and reeled in by the participant during the established time limit can be counted toward participant's total points in the tournament. Volunteers are only permitted to bait hooks and cast the line into the ocean. This was the first year the tournament counted points based on types of fish caught instead of total weight caught.

The annual event is sponsored by the First Flight, Nags Head, Manteo, Wanchese, Columbia, Currituck, Lower Currituck and Plymouth Lions Clubs and attracts over 500 blind and visually impaired individuals and over 300 volunteers from all over North Carolina, Connecticut, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Georgia to the Outer Banks each October.

The North Carolina Lions VIP Fishing Tournament is a non-profit organization celebrating its 32nd Anniversary this year. The project brings in participants for three days of recreation, fellowship, and independent living workshops designed to help visually impaired persons (VIPs). It is the largest gathering of visually impaired in North Carolina and is believed to be the largest event of its kind in North America. The VIP program touches the lives of a small percentage of those persons who are attempting to conform to a world of the sighted. Tournament officials recognize the need to build support and a financial base for the project. In-kind services secured locally and statewide help offset the annual costs.

 

Fund-raisers, such as the adopt-a-fisherman program, contributions and smaller projects cover expenses of the annual event that can exceed $200,000. Participants arrive on the Outer Banks on a Monday, are housed in local hotels, have six meals, go fishing on two head boats and four ocean fishing piers for a day of recreation, participate in seminars and independent living training, and visit with vendors. The closing awards banquet on Wednesday offers motivation and awards. The project has grown from a local tournament serving 12 blind children in 1982 to the 500 participants in 2014.

 

Many thanks to the Kings Mountain Lions Club, Lawndale Lions Club, and the Shelby Lions Club who helped make it possible for the group from Cleveland County to go on this trip. Thanks also to Central United Methodist of Kings Mountain for their partnership in this project and their members, Richard and Janice Anderson who drove many hours and miles, and making it a fun trip for the group.

 

For more information about the Division of Services for the Blind, contact Lucy Plyler, Social Worker for the Blind at: 704-487-0661/317.

 


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