30 local veterans headed out onto Lake Erie early this morning for a walleye fishing trip organized by the Sons of Lake Erie, marking the first of three outings planned for the summer.<\/p>\n
The event, held just after sunrise, is part of the organization\u2019s long\u2011running effort to honor veterans and celebrate America 250. About 30 veterans took part in the trip, which has become an annual tradition.<\/p>\n
Chuck Miller, one of the group\u2019s directors and a veteran himself, said the Sons of Lake Erie has been hosting these fishing trips for more than 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do this to honor all of our veterans,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI know what it means when somebody thanks you for your service, and that\u2019s simply what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nonprofit relies on donations from community members, social clubs, and veterans\u2019 organizations. Miller said that support makes it possible to offer the trips at no cost to participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be able to do these trips if it wasn\u2019t for the support of private folks in the community,\u201d he said. \u201cYear after year, they donate from their small games of chance to support our veterans\u2019 programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond veterans\u2019 events, the Sons of Lake Erie runs youth fishing programs, community activities, and a soup\u2011kitchen fish fry. Membership costs $5 a year for adults and $4 for seniors and juniors, with dues helping fund the group\u2019s outreach efforts.<\/p>\n
Miller said the goal of the trip was to give veterans a chance to relax, reconnect, and enjoy a day on the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope everybody has the best luck and catches all the fish they can use,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Two more veterans\u2019 fishing trips are scheduled through the end of July. The organization\u2019s annual fundraising and membership drive begins in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"30 local veterans headed out onto Lake Erie early this morning for a walleye fishing trip organized by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4000,136,138,137,99988,260,49098,2349,23033],"class_list":["post-231165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-america-250","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-fishing-trip","tag-lake-erie","tag-sons-of-lake-erie","tag-veterans","tag-walleye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}