Local Writer Finds a Way to Help Children in Storm-Stricken South

The tornado had cut a swath a mile wide in Cullman, Alabama, when Don Barone drove through with the deputy sheriff. They stopped along the way in front of piles of shattered glass, bits of homes, tossed, then dropped.

In front of one pile, he met a boy, 9 years old, who loved Elvis and fishing.

Standing together in the remains of the boy’s home, Barone and the boy named the things they could recognize, among them a branch of the family’s Christmas tree and his broken fishing pole.

“He said ‘I don’t got no fishing stuff anymore,’’’ Barone remembered. Then Barone, who calls himself an aging hippie, made one of those promises adults make. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

That was the beginning of Tackle the Storm. Barone wondered how many other children had lost their homes, their toys, everything that made their lives normal. After a few calls to local schools, the answer, he was told, was 300. To Barone that meant he needed 300 fishing rods.

Why fishing rods?

In the south, fishing is huge, Barone explained. It's how kids bond with the parents and find escape for a while.

“Forty million people have fishing licenses in the United States and that doesn’t include kids … down south every driveway has a boat.”

Barone, though not an angler, is somewhat of a celebrity in the fishing world. He has written for ESPN Outdoors, Bassmaster, Bass Resource, Wired2Fish and has his own site, donbaroneoutdoors.com. Before fishing, Barone spent 15 years as a breaking news and crime reporter for ESPN. He moved from New York to Farmington for the job.

While he could have gone to Wal-Mart to get fishing gear for one kid, Barone needed help to do it for 300.

On June 14, he wrote a story, putting out a call to the fishing community that was posted on several websites.

“The next day was my birthday … there was a flood of emails saying ‘you’ve been paid,’” Barone said. “It was about $3,0000 in yen, francs, from South Africa and New Zealand … we stood in the RV and you could hear ping, ping of the emails coming in.”

The elite anglers Barone wrote about, their corporate sponsors, fishing clubs across the country and his next-door neighbors all began to donate. Most sent money. The athletes sent signed jerseys that were auctioned off on eBay. They helped him get children’s rod and reel combos at cost, just $8.25 each.

Barone ordered hundreds and had them delivered. A children’s fishing tournament, planned in advance of the storm, was the perfect spot to hand them out. He worked with the local angling community to plan the event.

“We got massive community support,” Barone said. “FEMA wouldn’t give us names [of kids] so we worked through the schools. We nailed posters on the stumps of telephone poles.”

Barone wasn’t at the event when the rods were given out. He had left his RV for his young friend and his family to stay in and headed to the next stop on the Bass tour with friends in the oversized family of fishing.

“Cops picked up kids and brought stuff themselves. People cleared out their tackle boxes and brought what they had,” he said. “When we hand it to a kid after he’s lost everything, he’ll remember that forever. All we say is ‘it’s from an angler who loves you.’"

Shortly after Cullman, Tackle the Storm put fishing gear in the hands of more than 400 kids in Joplin, Missouri, after the town suffered the destruction of another devastating tornado. There have been smaller storms, smaller groups that have reached out to Barone. He never says no.

Now, Barone is bracing for this year’s storm season. He hopes there will be no young victims but Tackle the Storm is ready.

The nonprofit was approved for 501 (c) 3 status and has stored more than 1,100 children’s rod and reel combos in warehouses in Alabama and Arkansas.

“If you make somebody happy for 45 minutes, if you can put something normal into somebody’s life – as little as that normal is – it helps them move on,” he said.

To find out more, donate or order Tackle the Storm decals, visit the website. To find out more about Don Barone, visit his website.