Help Tobin ease into his retirement lifestyle

Shhhh, this is a surprise - please don't mention this to Tobin!

Ok, so your friend (and ours), Tobin Thompson, is retiring from ZGF at the end of next month (June 30th). As this is the only job he has ever had (unless you count part-time stints at Kinko's in college), this will be a big life transition for him.

Tobin is worried that he will be truly bored come July and a group of us decided we should give him a retirement project that he can get well and truly obsessed with. After some brainstorming, Tobin's brother Troy came up with a comprehensive fly fishing kit so that he can make his own flies.

We are inviting friends who are interested in chipping in to his new "retirement hobby" to chip in. So if you have an interest in keeping old man Thompson busy, please do send in a small gift. We are NOT looking for big gifts here -- 50 different folks giving $20 would be awesome.

The plan will be to send him a card/video with the names of everyone who was part of this initiative along with the surprise gift on June 30th or July 1st. Troy has already started to amass a list of items that he will need - Ceramic Bobbins, Dr. Slick Razor Scissors, a Super Fine Dry Fly Dubbing Dispenser, Elk Hair, etc.

So if you are interested in contributing, please chip in here before June 20th! And remember, this is meant to be a surprise.

Finally, please do watch the video to see Tobin's unique fly fishing form - this is from a fishing trip last fall in Montana - and shows that Tobin is a real natural when it comes to fly fishing.