Guest blog post written by 5 Rivers Coordinator, Andrew Loffredo:
Are you one of the millions of college students heading back to school this fall? If so, I’m sure you have packed all the essentials: pens, paper, beer (if you’re of age), and, of course, your fly fishing gear. But what if I told you that you’re missing something?
It’s not the underwear that you left in your dresser drawer or the $20 bill your grandma gave you for books. What I’m talking about is much bigger than that. What I’m talking about is a fly fishing club at your college.
The Trout Unlimited Costa 5 Rivers Program is a network of 65 TU-affiliated college fly fishing clubs around the country. As the capstone of the Trout Unlimited Headwaters Youth Program, 5 Rivers seeks to engage current and fly fishers-to-be on their campuses nationwide.
As part of their TU affiliation, clubs work with their local TU Chapters to complete a series of initiatives including: Conservation, Community Outreach, and Fundraising for their club programing.
You might be asking yourself, “This cool and all, but what’s in it for me?”
Other than becoming easily the coolest kid on your campus by starting one of these clubs, you get to be the Costa Sunglasses campus rep for your college, as well as earn pro deals on various fly fishing gear once your club completes your initiatives. But that’s only the half of it.
“Say what?”
As part of the 5 Rivers network you get to attend one of two national gatherings: one on the east coast (the 5 Rivers Rally) every fall, and one in the Rockies (the 5 Rivers Rendezvous) every spring. At the Rally and Rendezvous, students participate in a variety of events including a Pig Farm Ink “Iron Fly” fly tying competition, and a “Get Trashed” stream clean up challenge. Each event is full of prizes and every student walks away a winner with killer swag bags.
Thanks to a generous sponsorship from Costa, 265 students from 32 universities were able to attend these events for FREE. All that is required to attend is a positive attitude and being a current 5 Rivers club member.
I know you are sitting at your computer screen right now, thinking: “This sounds awesome, how do I start a 5 Rivers Club?”
It’s simple. Just shoot me, 5 Rivers Coordinator, Andrew Loffredo, an email at aloffredo@tu.org. He will get you all set up.
If you’re thinking, “I don’t know, it could conflict with my quiddage or knitting club meetings,” I ask you this one question: What has your quiddage/knitting club done for you?
But, like an infomercial you can’t stop watching at 2am, there’s more:
Here at Postfly, we’ve teamed up with the folks at the TU Costa 5 Rivers program to create a lineup of boxes full of flies, gear and swag for clubs only. These kits include a semester’s worth of boxes, filled with everything a club needs to get out on the water, stay busy at their vise all winter long and look like the coolest kid on campus all year long. We’ve even included an option to get custom swag coordinated with your school, so you can look fishy and rep your school pride at the same time.
Start shopping Postfly’s 5 Rivers club boxes now!
One thought on “Back To School: Make Your College The Fishiest In The U.S. of A”