By Carter Lyles
Fly Fishers, We Touch Hearts Around The World
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.” – Helen Keller
Founders Ben Glick and Jonas Nyqvist were an unlikely match, as Ben was a fly fisherman from America and Jonas was a Swedish fishing guide who had been living in Thailand for 30 years. However, they shared the passions of fly fishing and helping others.
They banded together under the ideal that they could use fly-fishing to help others and did so with their Flyanthropy project. By bringing fly tying to the impoverished community of Trat, Thailand, they were able to supply extremely high paying jobs to individuals who were in desperate need of aid.
Trat, Thailand, is a community in which there is an extreme shortage of jobs and resources. It is very common for families to become split, as one family member will leave to search for jobs elsewhere in order to send money back to their family. However, this quest is often unsuccessful and their families are left without income in a town with little resource and opportunity to improve their conditions.
Ben and Jonas decided to bring fly tying to this community and utilize the flies created to offer high paying jobs to the broken families of this community. The salaries are much higher than any job that these people could have dreamed of having. Flyanthropy utilizes fly tying to take impoverished people and allow them to become artists.
At the Flyanthropy studio, not only are the wages extremely high, but also a portion of the profits are reinvested into the community by supplying school uniforms for the children of the Flyanthropy Artists, for example. As Flyanthropy progresses, more and more benefits will be given to the community, and the community will grow and prosper through fly tying.
The impact has been astounding. The Artists are extremely thankful and motivated by the jobs, and their lives have been bettered already.
The Flyanthropy flies themselves are tied using only the best materials from around the world. They only use brands such as Whiting Hackle, Hareline Dubbin, Uni Threads, Tiemco Hooks, and other top quality materials. They are then put through a progressive 4-step quality check method, which starts with the raw materials, then the dubbing, then the hackle and additions, and then a final quality check of the proportions of the overall fly. They are truly the highest quality flies with the highest quality ethics.
Check out there website: http://www.innateflyfishing.com/flyanthropy/
Carter Lyles Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
That’s awesome!