A Message From Our Executive Director

To donate to our annual fund and help continue these programs for 2018, click here!

As the days are growing shorter and the air cooler, we can look forward to some prime fishing days ahead. But as we do so, we realize that there are kids in our community who have never experienced the joy of catching a fish.

Kids like Dielan Legrand. This year at the Bennington Lake Kids’ Fishing Day, he won a new fishing pole in our raffle. “I didn’t catch a fish, but I won a new pole!”

That was one pretty excited 10-year-old. That prize and ten more like it were made possible by donors like you.

Community support also allows us to take kids like Dielan on fishing trips in our Fishing 101 classes. Since the start of the class in 2016, 13 kids have learned to catch a fish.

We also know that there are kids out there who have never seen a salmon or heard about the vital role they play in our local ecosystem.

Through Salmon in School, 150 kids in College Place, Prescott, and Walla Walla schools the experience of raising salmon in their classrooms during the 2016-17 school year.

Kids like those in Angela Adams’s third grade class in Prescott. “The salmon have helped the students learn responsibility, respect for life, and create a welcoming atmosphere,” says Angela. “We have enjoyed every part of this process and the students think of the salmon as their friends.”

Thanks to generous community support, we’ve added Salmon in School in Pomeroy and Touchet this year.

Though that puts Salmon in School at ten tanks, we know there’s room for many more.

Your tax-deductible donation to Tri-State Steelheaders’ annual fund helps make it possible to provide opportunities like these to hundreds of local kids each year:

  • Your $20 gift will give a kid a fishing pole.
  • Your $100 gift will give a classroom a lesson on the salmon life cycle
  • Your $1,200 gift will provide a new classroom with a fish tank and supplies for Salmon in School

Your support is critical to our success. Without you, we couldn’t continue our work to introduce youth to the joys of salmon and fishing. Your gift makes a big difference tomorrow and every day!

Join us for our 2017 Annual Meeting!

Join us on December 6th for our annual meeting and a free showing of the documentary film “Wild Reverence: The Wild Steelhead’s Last Stand”! Doors will open at 6:30 for light refreshments, and at 7 we’ll have a brief (5-10 minute) slideshow highlighting Tri-State Steelheaders’ accomplishments in 2017, followed by the movie. As with last year, the meeting will be held at the Courtyard by Marriott at 550 W. Rose St. in Walla Walla.

Facebook event page: Annual Meeting & “Wild Reverence” Showing

Film info & trailer: “Wild Reverence” on Vimeo

2017 Alternative Gift Fair

Join us on December 2 for the 2017 Alternative Gift Fair! The event will be from 12 to 4pm in the Young Ballroom at Whitman College’s Reid Campus Center. You can buy the following holiday gifts to support Tri-State Steelheaders (you get a card to give to the giftee stating what was purchased in their honor):

  • $10 – Supplies for a gyotaku fish art lesson for one classroom
  • $20 – New fishing pole to give away at kids’ fishing events
  • $50 – Twelve trees planted for local habitat improvement
  • $100 – A salmon life cycle lesson for one classroom

Get the full details on the Facebook event page!

Summer 2017 Newsletter

Summer 2017 may have drawn to a close, but that’s the perfect time to catch up on what Tri-State Steelheaders was up to this season! If you’re a member, you should see our latest newsletter in your inbox and mailbox soon, if you haven’t already. It’s also available to read online!

Highlights in this issue include:

  • A recap of this summer’s Kids Fishing Days
  • The outcome of this year’s Crab Feed Fundraiser
  • Reflections from AmeriCorps volunteer Alex Coak on his first year of service

Salmon Enhancement Group