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On a blistering day, even along the Anacostia River, where there was no helpful breeze to be found, there was still excitement and joy about being outside.
The heat was brutal, but swimming underneath the water were a bunch of catfish who were hungry, and willing to risk it for the piece of bait fish attached to the end of a fishing rod. On the other end of the fishing rod was a child, who’d never gone fishing before.
The D.C. police’s Summer Youth Academy took a trip to the docks of the D.C. police Harbor Patrol in Southwest to go fishing on Tuesday. Equipped with rods and reels from the Department of Energy and the Environment, as well as volunteers from the nonprofit WeFish2, it was with great trepidation that most of them plopped their lines into the water and waited.
“Yo! There’s no fish over here,” yelled out 9-year-old Kylie, one of the few kids who had gone fishing before. “There’s no fish in here.”
Then, no less than two minutes later, her mood changed.
“I got something,” she called out. “I got a fish!”
Soon after, more and more of the kids were saying the same thing.
“Catching a fish was very, very fun. It was my first fish that I’ve ever caught in my life,” said 7-year-old Lathan Roberts. “I feel very awesome.”
What he didn’t feel was the fish though. For many of the kids, grabbing the slimy blue catfish was a bridge too far.
In fact, another girl named Dakota didn’t even want to get too close when she pulled in one of the biggest blue catfish of the day. But she was happy to talk about how she caught it.
“I was very brave. And I started yelling that I need a net,” she said. “I liked how I stayed confident. And that’s how I feel. I feel very good. I’m very proud of myself that I got a fish.”
For Lt. Andrew Horos, who is part of D.C. police’s Harbor Patrol, it’s the same sort of joy he feels when he goes fishing, which is one of his main hobbies when he isn’t working.
“A lot of kids in D.C. have never fished before,” Horos said. “It’s really rewarding to see the children snag a fish, land a fish, and get that experience.”
The Summer Youth Academy is a six-week program that gets backing from the D.C. Police Foundation. It works with kids between 7 and 12 years old. This was the second year the kids came to the Harbor Patrol’s pier to go fishing.
“They’re having so much fun. I think you will have seen a lot of the youth were a little uneasy starting, because they may have not experienced fishing before,” said Rebecca Schwartz, with the D.C. Police Foundation. “I’ve never seen so many kids catch fish before. I think this is a very successful day, and you have quite a few who were very nervous coming in, who are very proudly taking photos with their first catch today.”
She described the scene as “trepidation to just pure elation” — especially considering the size of some of the blue catfish that were getting pulled out of the water. The hope is those joyful moments will make a mark and a lasting memory.
“All of the programs focus on building a positive relationship between law enforcement and youth and community,” Schwartz said. “I think for kids to see that officers are people too, and they fish and they have fun — a lot of them are parents — and … helping them achieve something that they can share about with their family.”
It’s the kind of experience that the Woodbridge, Virginia-based nonprofit WeFish2 likes to bring to kids throughout the D.C. region.
“We’re trading Xboxes for tackle boxes,” Joshua Brown, the nonprofit’s CFO, said. “We want kids to go outside and play and interact with this beautiful thing called nature.”
So far this month, Brown’s group has helped introduce over 150 kids to fishing around the region. It’s a mark they try to hit every month.
“We’re sitting on a multitude of bodies of water that we don’t take advantage of,” Brown said. “The first time you hear a kid catch a fish, and they had that first fish in their hand, it’s priceless.”
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