Fishing Friendzy Foundation

Hi my name is Michael Sklad. My wife (Melissa) and I operate a Non-Profit organization called Fishing Friendzy Foundation. Our organization operates programs that teach kids and families about ethical angling and about respecting our natural environment. 

We wanted to create a way for family, friends and followers to show their support to our cause. This is a way to show your support for a Canadian non-profit organization that’s dedicated and committed to helping our youth grow to be life long conservationists.

We started Fishing Friendzy in 2007 by creating a traveling interactive exhibit to bring to fairs and festivals. It was a great way to bring our ethical angling education to different communities as an outreach program to get more families introduced to fishing. We started traveling throughout the USA to state fairs and soon after we started we brought it back home to Canada. In Canada we were honored to set up at the biggest Canadian Fair the Canadian National Exhibition, AKA the CNE, for 7 years where we are so proud to have taught hundreds of thousands of people some of the basics of ethical angling. We have helped over 10,000 people catch their very first fish! 

7 years ago we created our Youth Fishing Leagues to allow kids to join a new exciting educational and competitive program. This is a grass roots community program that we plan to grow bigger and bigger each year. We want to give families all over Ontario the opportunity to join a league and get hooked on fishing.

Our first year we operated 2 leagues in 2 communities and last year we operated 12 leagues in 9 different communities. Last year we were also able to give all the champions great prizes like guided fishing trips, kayaks, ice fishing hut rentals and even a 2 night stay at a lodge up north. We have worked with multiple Townships, conservation authorities, businesses and people in those communities, because that is where we make the most impact.

We want to ask for your support if you believe in what we are doing and if you believe that our programs are making a difference. We have created these program to connect kids and families to nature. We believe that if you have a connection to nature in some way you will naturally want to protect our forests, lakes, rivers or any species that co-inhabit this earth. 

Connecting to nature and spending time outdoors has been proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and for kids it’s been proven to help them focus longer and more intently in the classroom when spending consistent time outdoors.

We are teaching kids to respect the environment and become life long conservationists. These kids will be the next leaders of our world and we want to do our best to mentor them and guide them towards being protectors for animals, forests and clean water. 

We need your help to get more kids outdoors connected to nature. We’d love to know you value what we do and want to see more. Please feel free to send us a message of hope or share an outdoor memory of your family!

If you want to send a child to our program and pay for their registration fee please let us know in the message from your donation and we will find someone within our partners group of Big brothers/Big Sisters. Its $275 to send a child to our Youth Fishing Leagues and they get an amazing starter kit worth over $200 (It includes, rod, reel, hat, glasses, tackle box, tackle, lures and more)

www.fishingfriendzy.com 

Thank you. 

Peace, Love and Fishing! 

Michael Sklad - AKA Unkle Bass