YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC - Ten youths between the ages of 10 and 17 got a real introduction to fly-fishing - from on-land casting instruction to a float down the Yakima River to, naturally, a barbecue - last Thursday. The day was a mix of lessons in fishing and life, and a remembrance of a young man who reveled in both.
The activity was the inaugural Greg Stark Youth Fly-Fishing Day on the River, named for and held in honor of an eminently likable man who would have loved to see the smiles on the kids' faces.
Stark, who grew up in Royal City, was an avid outdoorsman with a real passion for fly-fishing. While he was a student at Central Washington University, he became a regular client at The Evening Hatch, an Ellensburg fly shop along the Yakima River. "He was a guest of ours at the shop," recalls Evening Hatch owner Jack Mitchell, "but more than that, he was a guy with a big heart, a real outdoors enthusiast."
Says Stark's mother, Barbara Stark of Royal City, "Greg told me that fly-fishing taught him so much about life. He said it mostly taught him patience, but also the love of nature, and respect for all things."
Greg Stark was 27 years old in May 2005 when he and his uncle, Tim Stark, headed up Mount Rainier to Camp Muir, where they intended to camp for the night. A sudden, severe storm swept in, cloaking the Muir Snowfield in blinding, whiteout conditions and two feet of new snow. Both men died in the storm.
In the months that followed, the Stark family, with Mitchell's help, created the Greg Stark Foundation. Mitchell put it on his fly shop's Web site (theeveninghatch.com) and donations began to come in. The youth fly-fishing day, which the family and The Evening Hatch plan to keep alive as an annual event, seemed like a natural.
"When we started receiving the donations," Barb Stark said, "we knew that Greg would want us to do something 'way cool.' So when our oldest son suggested something with fly-fishing and teaching kids to do what Greg loved, we ran with it."
The 10 students in last week's inaugural event - who came from as far away as Idaho, and western Washington - were selected in part on the basis of essays they submitted to the foundation on why they wanted to learn to fly-fish. Mitchell and four of his guides were their mentors for the day.
The application process for next year's Greg Stark Youth Fly-Fishing Day on the River - set for July 26, 2007 - is already under way. Applicants must be between the ages of 10 and 16. For more information, contact Greg's parents, Mike and Barbara Stark, at mstark000@centurltel.net, or Mitchell at jack@theeveninghatch.com.
Copyright, 2006, Yakima Herald-Republic. All Rights Reserved.
