Conservation

Virginia Fly fishing Festival
Platinum & Gold Tier Sponsors:

The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival Foundation

April 21-22, 2012, marks the 12th annual Virginia Fly Fishing Festival, and we appreciate your taking the time to support our event. Last year at the conclusion of the Dominion VIP Dinner, we were approached by a single fly angler who committed $10,000 toward the establishment of the Virginia Fly Fishing Foundation. Our goal is to reach $100,000 and then distribute grants each year to organizations that do conservation work in the Old Dominion that enhance the quality of our state’s rivers. The Virginia Fly Fishing Festival donates 50 percent of all proceeds from the festival to the foundation once festival expenses are paid. The remainder is used to promote the following year’s festival. As far as we know we are the only event of this kind in the country.

Prior to the establishment of the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival Foundation the festival donated over $8,000 to riparian work on the South River and other cold water conservation efforts. We’ve recently earmarked $2,500 toward purchasing freshwater tanks for Trout Unlimited’s popular Trout in the Classroom program for local schools. Evidence of our conservation work is hard to miss as witnessed by the large rocks placed along the banks of the South River to help prevent erosion. We also take a great deal of pride in watching the faces of happy children releasing trout into the South River that they raised themselves.

The festival is proud to host a variety of organizations with which we have common cause issues like Trout Unlimited, Federation of Fly Fishers, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and Project Healing Waters. All of these organizations are guests at the festival free of charge and often volunteer at our event. We are appreciate the support of the Shenandoah Valley Chapter of TU, which often donates hundreds of volunteer hours over the course of the weekend. We are especially grateful to chapter president Tommy Lawhorne for his years of service to the festival.

If you or your company would like to make a tax deductible donation—large or small—to the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival Foundation, please contact festival director Beau Beasley at 703-402-8338 or fishutopia@comcast.net. Together we can make a difference in the Old Dominion.