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NOXEN TWP. — A veterans group based in Wyoming County held a fishing derby and memorial ceremony on Friday to honor fallen service members and first responders.
The event specifically honored four area soldiers who were killed in Korea, Iraq or Afghanistan.
The Fish for the Fallen Derby & Memorial Ceremony was held at Patriots Cove along Route 29 by the group of the same name. As part of the derby, Cabot Oil & Gas, Williams Gas Company and Quality Collision, Courtdale, sponsored four teams of two veterans and one guide each to fish in Beaver Run waterway at Patriot Cove. The teams competed for the prize-winning trout in the daylong derby. Local high school students worked as support staff for the event, which drew nearly three dozen veterans and others.
“It was a way to pay tribute to fallen veterans who lost their lives in combat,” said Jeff Swire, Patriots Cove president and co-founder, who with his wife, Melissa, bought the property and donated its use for the events.
Swire said the companies provided donations and held fundraisers to help with the event.
The proceeds from the event go to Patriots Cove, a nonprofit, which hosts restorative outdoor activities, environmental service projects, and educational events and retreats for caregivers on the site. Swire and his wife founded the group to help veterans, first responders and their caregivers to heal and adapt to civilian life.
The event was one of six the group holds throughout the year, but this was the first fishing derby for fallen veterans.
The teams fished on three-quarters of a mile of the waterway on the 18-acre property.
In the memorial ceremony after the derby, the group remembered the four area veterans who were killed in action: Staff Sgt. Steven Tudor, of Dunmore, killed April 21, 2017, in Iraq; Sgt. 1st Class William Gardner, of Wilkes-Barre, a World War II veteran later killed on June 1, 1951 in the Korean War; 1st Lt. Michael Cleary, of Dallas, Pa., who was killed on Dec. 20, 2005 in Iraq, 10 days before he was to come home and to be married, and 1st Lt. Jeffrey DePrimo, of Pittston, killed in Afghanistan, May 20, 2008.
“This is a very important thing for us so we don’t forget the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice,” said Swire, an Iraq war veteran.
Mike Yauneridge, 37, of Johnstown, also an Iraq War veteran who met Swire at a Hunts for Healing event last year then decided to join Patriots Cove, said the teams fished on different sections, or beats, along the creek for 45 minutes each with 15 minutes in between each to move to the next section.
Yauneridge, who suffered a crushed leg in Iraq, and his fishing teammate Dennis Leonard, of Harrisburg, who lost his legs in the war and fished from a power chair riding on tracks, won the top award for the biggest fish caught — an 18-inch rainbow trout and 14-inch brook trout. They were sponsored by Cabot. Their guide was John Pittenger, of Tunkhannock.
Dave Ford, of Larksville, and Kari Spencer, of Harveys Lake, who both work for their sponsor, Quality Collision, took second with catches of a 17-inch and a 15-inch rainbow trout. Their guide was Ken Bach, of Auburn Center, Susquehanna County.
The top teams received plaques and all four teams received gift bags that included a T-shirt, cup and other items.
The day concluded with the memorial service for the fallen soldiers and for first responders such as firefighters and law enforcement, “who are putting themselves out there on our behalf,” Swire said.
An honor guard from the Daddow Isaacs American Legion Post 672 in Dallas took part in the ceremony and fired off a rifle salute before taps was played.
