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| DREAM CASTERS: Mayor Scott Avedisian joined Janet Coit of the DEM, Steve Medeiros of the RISAA, John Howell of The Rocky Point Foundation, Andrew Barspach, 9, of the Purple Team, and Dasani Stewart, 11, of the Orange Team for a symbolic cast at the shoreline to open the camp Tuesday.
Warwick Beacon photos
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“My mom was looking up a website because I like fishing, and she found this camp,” Christopher Melise said Tuesday morning against a backdrop of Narragansett Bay. “I wanna catch a sea bass.”
Christopher of Cranston is 9 years old and one of many members of the Red Group gathered at Rocky Point for a new fishing camp. Organized by the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association (RISAA) and endorsed by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), the camp aims to teach children, ages 7 to 14 the basics of onshore and offshore fishing.
The camp was set up in a field of grass, once the site of the park’s salt-water pool, so the campers were already close to the water. Tables were set up under a tent, where the children were organized into orange, green, purple and red teams and anxious to start the day.
“There’s nothing like teaching kids the proper way to have fun catching fish,” said Rich Hittinger, first vice president for the RISAA. Hittinger also pointed out that RISAA was able to pay for the entire camp, a cost of about $7,000.
Coming to a close today, the boys and girls of the camp will have had a chance to take classes and participate in hands-on learning experiences. The groups will be assigned certain classes in certain time slots throughout the day. “Fishing Basics” teaches the differences between rods, reels, jigs, lures and more. The kids will be taught fish biology and how to tie knots. They will even take turns learning both shore fishing and boat fishing. They’ll spend a half-day bottom fishing off Warwick Neck and half a day trolling in Greenwich Bay. Second vice president Dave Monti said that the association partnered with the Brewers Greenwich Bay Marina in Warwick Cove that donated dockage to the fishing camp. Eight members have provided their boats so as to get the kids on the water and fishing. Monti said 25 kids get bused down from their location in Rocky Point to the marina in the morning, and the other 25 will go out in the afternoon.
“In one of our very first events here [soon after the park opened in 2014],” said Janet Coit, director of the DEM, “Steve [Medeiros, president of the RISAA] said to me, ‘I’ve been looking for a place to hold a fishing camp. Why not right here?’ and I said to him, ‘Absolutely.’”
The idea started two years ago, according to Monti, when he, Medeiros, and Hittinger formed part of a committee to answer the question: “Wouldn’t it be great to have a fishing camp?” The objective was education about fishing, and ultimately, the committee was able to focus their idea onto the education of children.
Coit and Avedisian saw more to the camp than just fishing. For them, it was an introduction of a Rocky Point experience to another generation.
“Every time you connect with someone in nature, they will become an advocate for preservation,” said Coit.
The City of Warwick played a big part in the preservation of the park when it acquired 41 acres of shoreline from the bankruptcy court appointed receiver, the Small Business Administration (SBA), in 2013. “When we saw the original plans for 495 condominiums, we had to do something,” Mayor Scott Avedisian said of the plans of more than one developer considering purchase of the former amusement park. “And with 39 miles of coastline [in Warwick], you’re never more than five minutes away from the beach.”
So what made this place the right spot to hold a fishing camp in the first place? Janet Coit had some ideas.
“People who remember the amusement park come back here and feel it all again,” she said. “And a new generation will experience this differently, as a beautiful, natural area.”
So, while past generations will gather in the park to visit old memories, the newer generations will gather here to create new ones.
“This is exactly what public parks are for,” said Coit.
Dave Monti said there were 50 children registered to participate. Originally, organizers planned on 40, but there was such a high demand that the RISAA made room for more. He said that with the amount of applications, they could have easily had 100 children.
Monti said that originally, the RISAA remained local in their recruitment, immediately partnering with the Boys & Girls Club of Oakland Beach, since they were so close. Next, he wrote in his column for the Warwick Beacon to advertise the camp, and finally, to reach a broader audience, wrote a column for the Providence Journal. While most of the children are local, one came from as far as Missouri to visit his grandparents who had learned about the camp. Some are new to fishing and excited to learn the ins and outs of the practice, and others are more experienced, like 14-year-old Hayden Kearney, who’s father owns a saltwater fishing boat. One thing they all have in common: they want to catch fish.
“I just wanna catch a plain big fish,” said 14-year-old Matthew Banspach of Warwick. “As big as this table.”
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