Get Hooked on The Mayfly Project!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey there, everybody, and thank you very much for tuning into your best you real conversations around mental wellness brought to you by MHA of Dutchess County. Also brought to you in part by the Northern and Southern Dutchess Community Coalitions. We had a lot of fun recently doing our Starlight Spotlight series where we were talking about folks that were in the entertainment industry in the area, especially talking with the artists that are going to be in our upcoming Sound of Nashville concert. That was a lot of fun. Now we are focusing in on the community once again. We were actually. It's funny how this worked. I was going to say it was originally brought up by Julie Simpson, but technically Rory and I met first. Before Julie could send her email, it was this whole thing. But it's just kind of this fun serendipity that we got all together today. Julie Simpson, for instance, she's our respite program manager here at MHA setting this all up. But with us today, we're speaking with Rory and Stephanie. We have the lead and co lead project mentors for the Mayfly Project. And when it comes to the Mayfly Project, it's a national project that's going on, but they are heading up the Pipy Project. What's going on here in the Hudson Valley. We got so much to talk about in regards to this. It's going to be a lot of fun to get into. So, Rory, Stephanie, how are you guys doing well today? [00:01:15] Speaker A: How are you? Thank you. [00:01:16] Speaker B: It's so good to have you guys on. I'm glad that we were able to make this happen. Rory, you know, you and I met very briefly over at the festival at the Falls in Wappingers, which was really nice serendipity. I know you were already talking to Julie about making something happen with the podcast, and it was just like the perfect timing of everything, how that all came together. You heard me. DJing is like, hey, I also work for MHA. It's like, do you now? I thought that was pretty funny. [00:01:41] Speaker C: Yep, yep. Yeah. We had just wrapped up our final outing for the year with Mayfly. Obviously, Julie had mentioned coming on the podcast that you guys do this. You know, I kind of. Okay, that's. [00:01:51] Speaker A: That's an idea. [00:01:51] Speaker C: It's something to rattle around in the head. And then next week I was at the festival for the Falls and I heard you talking, and then you said you worked at MHA and you do the podcast, and it was like you, you just said serendipitous. So I figured, all right, let's, let's strike this. Strike this iron while it's hot and get going. [00:02:07] Speaker B: No, I'm glad that we were able to connect at it. And also, can I just say, it was a beautiful festival at the falls this year. Definitely on the hotter side, but not as hot as they originally were predicting. I remember they were saying close to 100. Unfortunately, we had rain the night before it dipped down. It was comfortable. I was there the entire time. I'm pretty sure you were there, too, so we didn't completely melt. So that's nice. [00:02:27] Speaker C: No, no. And there was a nice breeze all day. It was. It was lovely. No, I was under a tree. Had some shade. [00:02:33] Speaker B: There you go. Stephanie, did you pop in at all? I didn't get a chance to meet you there. I don't believe I was not there. [00:02:39] Speaker A: I had a baby shower to go to that day. So that one precedent. [00:02:42] Speaker B: How nice. Okay. That you get a buy on that. That sounds very nice. I hope the baby shower went very well. But guys definitely want to get into the Mayfly project. What it is like here in the Hudson Valley, what you guys are doing. The Poughkeepsie project, how you guys are helping out the community. Specifically, I'm looking at your website. You're supporting youth in foster care through fly fishing. You're building confidence, finding healing, and promoting environmental conservation. That's a hell of a mix right there. So, obviously, that's a very, very brief overview that I stole off a couple of lines off the website. But would you guys like to take it from here and give an overview of what you guys do for Mayfly? [00:03:20] Speaker C: Sure. Your broad strokes kind of COVID the broad strokes. A lot of them kind of go hand in hand if you're true fisher person, TR Angler. The conservation end kind of just goes with it. You. You need to support the conservation end to continue doing the thing you enjoy as far as the children of foster care is concerned. Yep. That's the whole thing is we recognize that these kids kind of have a tougher deal than most. I kind of view it as more of this is the excuse we're using to teach them these things, that it's. It's the framework that we make the sales pitch in. And the sales pitch is go outside and decompress. You can. You can go fishing and have a good day. You can just walk around a park and have a good day. If things are stressful at home, doesn't matter. If you're a child, you're an adult. If things are stressful, go outside and just be in nature for a Little while. Listen to a stream bubbling, listen to the birds chirping. It helps. It helps significantly. [00:04:11] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they say touch grass. This is the perfect opportunity. Go touch grass, put your feet in the stream, do something like that. Get one with nature for sure. [00:04:19] Speaker C: The specific things to fly fishing that we try to instill in the kids are developing some patience, developing some stick to itiveness, developing an awareness of their surroundings insofar as kind of appreciating the moment you go outside and you hear the bird chirp. So you have to kind of listen for it before you can hear it. Look around, see, oh, look at that pretty flower. Oh, look at that bird over there. Oh, that kind of stuff. Those are the things that we try to stress so that when we're not there anymore, when the session's over, hopefully they have some skills that they can use in their everyday lives to make things a little bit easier on them. Beyond that, my biggest thing is have fun and be safe. That's, that's, that's even bigger than all the other stuff. I don't care. I don't care if they learn anything. Go outside, have fun. That's it. Just have some fun for a couple hours. Get a, get a break from the day. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. And the rest will follow. The rest will follow as it's to come, for sure. And I think that's such a great experience with it. One of the things that I was lucky enough to do in my previous career, you know, I was a camp counselor for years. I think I might have told you this, Rory, have. I ran a outdoor adventure camp where we went to different fishing spots. Now, mind you, we had like 40 kids and we had to try to figure out how to handle 40 rods on a bus. Not the greatest situation. We figured it out. We wrapped tinfoil around it. It kept it actually pretty, pretty well organized. It was good. Wouldn't Recommend it with 40 kids, though. But Stephanie, I want to hear from you now, like, when it comes to mentoring these kids and bringing them out on fishing expeditions, how many kids are you roughly bringing out at a time? Is it like a one on one situation? Are you doing it in group situations? Is it kind of a mix of both at times? What does that look like? [00:05:56] Speaker A: So the beautiful thing about our program is we keep that one to one, mentor to mentee ratio. So like Rory said, the fly fishing is wonderful and great and the kids get into it, but if you have a kid that wants to go skip some rocks, absolutely, we can do that all day. So we really meet them on their level and help them to get where they want to get in their own individual kind of journey along the program. So we'll take them out on five outings each year. We'll start with the very basics. Teach them everything there is to know about the rod, about tying knots. Then we'll move on to flies. We'll move on to learning about the aquatic insects. And then plenty of time for them to get out there and fish. And let me tell you, nothing better than hearing a kid catch a fish and scream, I got a fish. I got a fish. Everyone just gets so excited. So, yeah. [00:06:40] Speaker B: Oh, that's beautiful. So that's cool. Having the one to one mentor mentee situation, that makes it really accessible when it comes to working with these kids. Because I, I, I'll probably keep referencing the camp that I worked at, but having maybe like four counselors for 40 kids, okay, it was probably more like five or six counselors, but still six max for 40 kids. That's a lot. So to try to be able to give that kind of attention to the kids, it is difficult. Here you guys have that one to one situation going on. I think that is great. Rory, when it comes to the places that you guys go, where do you hit up? Is it mostly freshwater? Are you guys traveling somewhere off to the shore? Are you guys keeping it close to home? And is it creeks? Is it rivers? Talk about the environment that you guys hit up. [00:07:24] Speaker C: So we primarily focus on freshwater. Other projects may focus on a little bit more salt, depending on what they have available to them. Most of our outings are held right in Poughkeepsie at Overlook Park. Oh, beautiful. For us, it, it works out really well. There's, there's ample parking. There is ample space to spread out. Last, the one that just ended, we had six children, so there was 12 people total. But there was plenty of room. Nobody was cramped. Nobody was on top of each other. There's a pond where they can practice. I don't know how much you fish, but sunnies are a little bit easier to catch than trout. Yeah. So kids can cast the sunnies all day and they can get it. They can actually get a fish on without really any experience on the first day. They can catch a fish. That's, that's huge. They're, no pun intended. They're hooked. The other, the other nice thing about Overlook is that the Wappinger's Creek flows along the backside of the property. So that when the children are ready to go down to the river, we can just go right back There we don't have to travel too far. It's close by. It's in their backyards, which is going back to the. Giving them some for when we're not there. They can just hop on a bike potentially and ride it to there. They can get a ride easier if they need to get a ride, it's in their backyard so they don't have to go hunting. For our final outing, we generally try to go somewhere special to give them more of like a. More of a fishing experience, so to say. And this year we did our final outing in Pleasant Valley at Albrechts, which is again, I was trying to find someplace close by that they can go to and have this, this experience, this. Oh, I'm an actual fisher person. I'm out there just like everyone else, you know. Albrix is a very nice stretch of river. [00:09:05] Speaker A: It's. [00:09:05] Speaker C: It's as trouty as anywhere in the Catskills. It's. It's beautiful. Had a nice little lunch on the river. It was, it was a wonderful last time together for the year. So that's, that was this year. We're always open to suggestions if there's a place that's better. We just kind of haven't found one yet. [00:09:19] Speaker B: Understandable. But you know what, the places that you're mentioning are fairly beautiful. They are really great spots to be able to hit up. That's great. So, Stephanie, I want to hear your perspective about this year's projects. How you guys got out, you did your last one for the season and whatnot. What was that like for you? Tell us and walk us through your experience with the kids and the fishing. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So this was our first fourth year, right, Rory? [00:09:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:42] Speaker A: Time really flies when you're having fun, I'll tell you that. So we've kind of got it dialed in a little bit, I would say, at this point. And we also had some new mentors who shout out to camp counselors. That's how I met my one good friend and my husband. So continuing that in our mentorship this year, we just had a really great and eager group of kids right off the bat. They were so into it. And generally speaking, I would say that's usually the case. It's always so amazing to me as someone who was self taught and struggled for so long to learn to fly fish how much you put a rod in these kids hands and they can pick up the knots so fast. They can pick up the casting so fast. And if you know anything about fly fishing, the casting is one of the hardest Things to learn. Because you're so used to wanting to just throw something out there, which you can't do with fly fishing. [00:10:30] Speaker C: I'm still working on it. [00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Forever will be working on it. So watching these kids come in, most of them have maybe spin fish a little bit or have. Have no experience at all and go from nothing in the beginning to the end, talking about trips that they want to take in, places they want to go to fly fish, and just really seeing that growth and seeing kids. I remember, I think it was maybe two years ago when we had a project. Someone from MHA who hadn't been there from the beginning, came out towards the end and she told us, you don't understand what you've done with these kids. Like, we had kids that wouldn't speak in the beginning, and by the fourth outing, they're raising their hands or answering questions. They're just so excited to be there. And they just get this opportunity to forget anything else that's going on, forget any of their inhibitions, and just have a good time. And that's been so impactful for us and what makes us keep coming back every year, you know, that's great. [00:11:23] Speaker B: So that brings up a point that I wanted to talk about. You said coming back year after year. So this has been around in Poughkeepsie for four years now. Now, Mayfly has been around longer than that, but it's been established in this area for the last four years. 2022 is when it started. Do you feel like it's gotten easier to get the kids involved and interested with each year? It has, like, word of mouth helped, has the experience of the mentors and some people or friends who might have gone through it. Has it made it easier to connect with the kids where they're a little less guarded than when they might have been in the beginning? What is that kind of vibe about trying to break through to the kids? [00:11:59] Speaker C: I don't know how much more easy it is for the organizers to recruit children. I know that this year when I. When I sent out the, hey, here are some prospective dates, that kind of a thing. The touch and base emails in the beginning, immediately off the bat, I think it was Julie had been suggesting a couple of children who they saw and knew and thought that this project would be good for them. And both of those children signed up and they both seem to have a blast. Actually, when Stephanie mentioned hearing a kid shout, I've got a fish on one of the kids this year, they caught their first fish ever, full stop. And I Mean screamed. You could have heard them in the city. You know, it was. He was so excited. So I. I think it might be a little bit easier because they. They have a little bit more of an understanding of what we do. They have the ability to kind of explain it to children. A little bit easier. Less. It's less amorphous. We've actually had a few children come back. The very first year we had a kid, he didn't come back the next year, but he was here last year. He was here this year. Last year we had a kid sign up, came back again this year. We had two children who were interested from last year. Only one of them managed to make it this year. There was some paperwork issues, but that would have been three repeat customers, which I think speaks volumes. If you can get a kid to do anything more than once like that, I think you're doing the right thing. [00:13:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, for sure. That's good to know that people can come back and be repeat customers. [00:13:25] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:13:26] Speaker B: Because I wasn't sure if this is like a. You know, you're trying to keep rotating people in and out, and it's like, once you're good, that's it. That's good to know. So if people want to come back, good to know. Stephanie, I want to hear from you about your perspective. Do you feel like certain aspects have gotten easier? Have certain aspects gotten harder? Is it kind of neutral? Tell me about your perspective on that. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. Well, our relationship with mha, I think, has really grown over the past few years, and we've really just developed such a good community together where it's really a mutually beneficial situation because we get to go out with the kids and they have something for the kids to do. So it's been a good relationship to keep working together. I think there's always some struggles for us because we're all volunteers. So finding the time and making sure we're keeping that communication open and always coming in with a good attitude, because obviously, we all have things going on in our own lives, but we want to make sure that we're always showing up for the kids, which our mentors do a very good job of. We can start out the morning, get out, whatever. We have to get out before they get there. And then as soon as the kids come, they're right into it, and they're having a good time and showing up, and I think that's the most important. [00:14:36] Speaker B: So. So good. Before we get back to the children specifically and what they're getting out of it, I want to Talk to you guys about your backgrounds in fishing? I was looking on the websites. You guys have little bio, so I'm not that much of a stalker. It's public information. Stephanie, I want to start with you. It looked like that your fly fishing love didn't start until you moved away for college. You were originally from the Hudson Valley, but it was. You found a love for it out in California. Was it through a trout habitat that you got to experience it for the first time? [00:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So I actually had a really interesting opportunity where somehow I found my way into working in fisheries. So crazy job, just going out, snorkeling and kayaking and boating. So, oh, so tough. It was terrible. I hated everything. Oh, I'm sure. So quite a few guides, and they would take people on the Sacramento River. So that was the first place I learned how to fly fish. And then once again, no pun intended, was immediately hooked. I just spent the next few years learning and developing such a love and a passion for fly fishing. And that passion is really what drove me to the Mayfly project. I wanted to find something where I could give back the thing I loved so much to other people and give them that therapy and that enjoyment of being on the river. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. So what's it, Rory, before I hand it over to you and get into more of your background with it? Stephanie, I'm curious then, as somebody who got into fly fishing, quote, unquote, later in life, later than these kids are, what does. What does that meant to you, getting into something that is so recreational, so peaceful and so mindful? Do you think you would have gotten the same experience out of it if you were introduced to it when you were younger, or do you appreciate that you got it when you were older? [00:16:18] Speaker A: Well, that's a very good question. I think for me personally, it kind of hit at the right time, because moving around, getting all these new experiences, new struggles that come with new experiences, finding this thing that I could really make my own. And anytime I'm feeling upset about something or just want to be out somewhere beautiful, I always have that that I can pick up. And I think for these kids as well, we're trying to instill that even if they don't continue fly fishing right now, in 10, 15 years, when they're looking for something to kind of give them a little bit of purpose or to give them some relief, they know they have this as an option. [00:16:53] Speaker B: Great option to have. Of course. I. I think it's funny because going back to the camp that I was a counselor For I remember it had been years since I had fished, and they were looking for somebody to run the camp. And my boss, Rob, goes like, Connor, you fished before, right? It's like, it's been like three or four years. Perfect. So you can do it. It was like, all right, I'll figure it out. And I was able to finger it back out again. Now, mind you, we were mainly doing spin fishing. We weren't doing nearly as much of the fly fishing. However, we had some kids who did have experience doing fly fishing. So they brought out their flies, and they were teaching some of the other kids how to do it. It was such an awesome collaborative experience because not only, you know, we needed counselors who knew what they were doing and could be responsible with the rods, but it was really cool to see the kids take leadership opportunities and help teach each other, whether it was spin, whether it was with flies, whatever it is, you know, just the way that they were helping each other out. You know, we had a couple of counselors who weren't, like, too good with all of the knots, but we had a couple of kids who were like, let me do this. And they just did it, like, pretty much for the whole day. And it was like, don't you want to get out on a rod? It was like, ah, I like tying these knots for everybody. This is cool. I was like, okay, whatever works for you. That's my tangent. But, Rory, I want to hear from you. Now, you, on the other hand, you did have some experience fishing as you were growing up. What I was able to find that you grew up in Fallsburg, right by the Never Sink river, and you started spin fishing at a relatively young age, mainly having any experience with your family. What was that like growing up and having that be a familial bond that you can continue that tradition on today? [00:18:30] Speaker C: Well, before. Before I get into that, I just. I do want to say. I want to thank everybody at mha because they do a lot of stuff that makes what we do possible, especially Mr. Clyde. I don't know if he's going to listen to this or not, but Mr. Clyde makes everything possible. So I just. I just want to say thank you to everyone there, because literally, we couldn't do it without them. We wouldn't have any children. We would just be standing in a field waving sticks at each other, which is fun. So, yeah, my experience. Yeah, you. You kind of hit it on the head. My father was. Was an avid fisherman. He was kind enough to take me along every once in a while. The neversink is, is one of the classic historical fly fishing rivers. It gets overshadowed a little bit by some of its neighbors that are a little bit more nationally known. But if you go through the histories, the Neversink is and was one of the birthplaces of fly fishing. And I, yeah, yeah, back, back before there was a reservoir and back before there was a dam, it's one of the first. And like a true child, I did not take full advantage of that. I, you know, I fished every once in a while with my dad after work or on a weekend. And then in my teens I stopped fishing. Couldn't care less about it. Didn't, didn't start fishing again until my late to mid, mid to late 20s. I started getting back into it just by, by spin fishing and decided, you know what, I kind of want to learn how to fly fish. And like Stephanie, I just, I self taught and made a lot of errors and learned a few bad habits that I'm still trying to, to work out and I just kind of, kind of took it from there. I read a lot of books, I've watched a lot of videos. I've spent as much time on the water as I can. I make no representation of expertise, but I, I know a little bit more than the kids do, so I can, I can help them a little bit. [00:20:18] Speaker B: You can get them going and started. And that's the important part. [00:20:21] Speaker C: Exactly, exactly. As far as the Mayfly goes, I kind of just heard about it through the grapevine on, on Instagram or Facebook or something, who knows? It was, it was actually the year before COVID started that I signed up. [00:20:33] Speaker A: Oh wow. [00:20:34] Speaker C: And then. Yeah, yeah. And there was. I live in Newburgh and the closest project to me was, I think it's Hartford, Connecticut. So it was about a two hour drive. And I said, you know what, I'm game. I'm not doing anything else with my time. Might as well. That kind of fell through with COVID and everything like that. And then the year after Covid they opened one in Scranton, Pennsylvania. So I signed up for that and it was, it was about a 20 minute difference. So I said, I'm going to save the 20 minutes in driving. So I went there and that was my first year was in Scranton. The first year of Scranton was my first year as a mentor. And then the next year they opened the one here in Poughkeepsie. And since that was even closer and more local and I signed up actually we've, Stephanie and I have both done little kind of pitch hitters for the Scranton project, where they had a couple of people cancel last minute, they needed replacements. So we went out there and gave them a hand, which. Which worked out wonderfully. Honestly. I have. I have a basic instructor's experience. I was a snowboard instructor for many years, so I kind of understand how to explain things that aren't necessarily the most obvious. Like, they're not intuitive. You have to be guided through. Yeah. So I try to use some of those skills that I learned doing that with this. [00:21:50] Speaker B: That's neat. Any kind of teaching, those skills are so transferable. So it's great that you're able to have that. And that's cool that you're able to kind of build things up over time. There was something that you said that I really want to, like, kind of nitpick and really get into in a second, but before we do, Stephanie, you know, Rory was going through his past experiences with Mayfly before the one in Poughkeepsie came about. Did you also have experiences in other ones prior or specifically Mayfly? Or was Poughkeepsie your first? [00:22:19] Speaker A: I did, actually. When I lived in Phoenix, Arizona, I was the original lead mentor, which was a real struggle in itself to get it off the ground. I could tell you. It takes a lot of work. So I was there for about a year. Obviously, an extremely different environment. We were fishing, all urban Phoenix ponds. So very interesting. A lot of kids who had zero fishing experience, as you can imagine. But surprising how much support there was in the community, how many fly fishers there were in that area. [00:22:50] Speaker B: Oh, that's nice. So then you had that, and then was Poughkeepsie after you had. What was the timeline then? [00:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I actually rolled right into PFC as soon as I moved back to New York. So from the beginning of the Poughkeepsie project is right when I came in, right when I moved back. So it worked out really well. [00:23:06] Speaker B: Good timing. Love that. No, that's great. So this next question is for both of you guys, and it stems off of something that Rory said, but I think it really captures the mission of what Mayfly is trying to do here. Rory, you said how when you were out with your dad, like, a true kid didn't truly appreciate or truly fully understand it. And that even kind of goes back to the question I asked you, Stephanie, about do you feel like you got it at the right time? Would you have appreciated it younger, or you glad that you got it a little later in life when it comes to these kids, especially coming from more difficult situations, being in the foster care system, they don't have. They may not have a father or father figure to take them out to fish. They may not have a mother or mother figure to take them out to the park, to the streams. They don't have that same sense of family. What is it like to step in and be a role model for these kids? And what do you see them get out of it from those experiences in that regard? [00:24:05] Speaker C: Intimidating. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Intimidating. Okay, explain. [00:24:09] Speaker C: I don't consider myself much of a kid person. And figuring out how to not be a clotchety old man, for lack of a better term. Yeah. And how to actually be their friend. I don't understand your references. I don't understand, you know, anything. Trying to. Trying to not come off as an authority figure. Those are all challenging to me personally. So that's. That's kind of been my. My biggest thing. And when. When Stephanie had mentioned earlier that, you know, we. We get as much out of it as the kids do, I think for me, that's one of the things that I get out of it, is being able to connect to it, to these kids who I don't know from Adam. And it's gratifying seeing them smile, seeing them happy, at least on paper, giving them a better outlook for the future. [00:25:02] Speaker B: It is something truly. Stephanie, what's your perspective on all of that? Is it intimidating, like Rory said, or. [00:25:11] Speaker A: I think I've spent a lot of my life working with kids, and I was actually a high school teacher for a couple of years, so that made me appreciate this experience more that I don't have to be in a classroom full of kids. There's something that I think we frequently say to each other, and especially with regards to talking to children who are in foster care, is how often as a kid did you get to have one on one time with an adult in a way that wasn't them yelling at you or punishing you, just truly being there to support you. So I think it's a really special experience that we're not here to. We're not even necessarily. We're not here to be their friend. We're be. We're just here to support them, you know, so just having an adult who's a calming, nice presence, who listens to you, you can say what you want to say, but the end of the day, the focus is just getting out there with the kids and supporting them as they learn and grow. And I think that's just a really unique experience that not a lot of kids in general get to have. [00:26:07] Speaker B: Oh, My God, what you said about the one on one experience with. With an adult, when you're a kid, when it's not being disciplined, it's like it is. I. I feel very lucky. You know, I'm an only child. I had great experiences with my folks. I feel like they were very present and very there. But it's tough, it's true, to have that one on one quality time. You know, I think back to the time of when I was a camp counselor and the kids that I needed to give a little more time, attention, and love to, because you could tell they weren't getting that at home. And it's like, okay, learning how to meet them where they are, because honestly, the times where they're acting up, they're really just looking for attention. And even if it's the negative kind, unfortunately. And it was really cool when we were able to take some of the kids and like, we gave them, like, titles, you know, as a helper or our assistant in this. And it's like when they. When they. When we gave them a role of some kind and gave them something to do, it empowered them and gave them a sense of responsibility, just like I'm sure this fly fishing experience certainly does. So all that being said, and again, open, open conversation, open discussion, I want to hear from both of you on this. Have there been moments where the kids have spoken to you or reached out to you about something beyond the fishing, where the mentors, such as yourselves, were able to help guide them through it, or something personal came up that you guys were able to be a helping hand that goes beyond the fishing? For example, for me, I remember there was a time where we were out for that outdoor adventure camp, and I'm just chatting with a kid, and they laid out some deep personal stuff, and we just kind of sat there and we worked it out that afternoon. And I remember seeing him a few weeks later, and they came up and hugged me and thanked me for the experience. It was just like one of those moments, like, didn't plan on it, but it was just like one of those things where it. Right place, right time and really help them to get through it. [00:27:59] Speaker A: Like Rory said, we're really encouraged to not talk too much on those subjects because we're all volunteers and we're not necessarily trained to handle things like that. Maybe in the most. I don't know the right word to say. Yeah, yeah, so. But we do definitely have moments where we connect with the kids and they will share things. My mentee this year shared things with me. Personal things. But for the most part, just providing a listening ear allowed her to kind of figure things out on her own. And actually, one of the best things for me this year, maybe the third or fourth outing, she turned to me and she said, you know what? At least I know that whenever I'm feeling upset, I can go out to the river and just find that common peace being with water. And I was like, that's amazing. That is all we want for you is to have that opportunity. [00:28:50] Speaker B: That's such a great way of putting it. Yeah. And like Stephanie, in your case, the fact that you did have, like, a teaching background and having some prior experience is teaching, mentoring, helping out with kids, you know, having this more laid back experience must be nice compared to having, like, in the classroom regimented to be able to have this kind of easy, laid back and open, caring environment. Not to say that school's not caring, but it's a different kind of caring. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. I think that was one of the biggest reasons I left teaching was I couldn't deal with that strict environment anymore. So having this where I can take kids outside and just let them be kids and let them figure things out on their own without me having to tell it to them, it's such a wonderful experience. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Oh, for sure. Yeah. No, especially like I remember in high school in particular, we were always like, class outside, class outside. Come on, let's go outside and have this class. It's like, it's a beautiful day. Take us outside. It only happened a couple of times. It only happened a couple times for us, but. Rory, do we give you enough time to think? Do you feel like you have something for that? [00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah. So that, that first year that I was, I was a mentor over in Scranton, my mentee was graduating high school that year. He. He wasn't very interested in the fishing aspect. He kind of. His, his caregiver had signed him up to just get him out of the house, basically, which I respected. I mean, I, I understand this isn't for everybody. And so we, we mostly just spent our time hanging out and, and, and chatting, really. Mostly basic stuff. You know, he was. He would talk about video games or sports or something, and I would try to refocus him on fly fishing. But on the, on the final day, we were kind of walking along a path back to the, the gathering area, and he was talking about how he was graduating. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do after he graduates. I kind of, I told him, hey, this is what I did after I graduated, you know, Kind of walked him through a little bit of my post high school life and some of the things that I had learned along the way and wish I could have gone back and done a little bit differently. Haven't spoken to him since then, so I don't know how many of those bits he took to heart. But I like to think that he's currently pursuing a PhD and he's going to be our next president. So that's, that's, that's my hope. [00:31:04] Speaker B: Wouldn't that be something? But yeah, just to be able to have that conversation like, you know, we've had that time, we've been 18, we were been in that position where it's like, where am I going? What am I going to do? Whether that's, you know, you're heading off to college or not. Very often 18 year olds are left with that, what am I going to do now? Kind of feeling. Just the fact that you're able to be there and have that kind of conversation with them, I think really kind of summarizes some of the beauty of the connection and the mission of Mayfly of just being able to give these kids an outlet, which is great. And Stephanie, like what you said with how that one person says, like when things get a little too crazy, I can always just go down to the water. It's like, ah, just so gorgeous with that. Yes, Chef's kiss. [00:31:51] Speaker C: Indeed. [00:31:52] Speaker B: So we're getting towards the end of this episode, but when it comes to the Mayfly project, we covered a lot already, but are there certain aspects of it that you feel like go beyond something that can be said in just a quick elevator pitch? Is there something like through your experience is like, oh, you can only get this if you experience it. It's hard to just say it. Is there something about this experience? It's like, just come on out, just do it, because you're going to get something out of it. Is there something else that you'd like to add or just re emphasize something that we've already said? [00:32:25] Speaker C: I mean, the obvious answer is just the sound of joy. That's a little bit hard to communicate. Hearing a kid just light up vocally, it hits a little something inside. Having the kids come back after having done it before and knowing what it is and all that, that was kind of cool. Cool. I really appreciated having the kids come back. They had fun and I truly appreciate being able to help them have that fun. That's, that's kind of, kind of my biggest thing. I just, I enjoy seeing them having [00:32:58] Speaker A: fun to touch back a little bit more on my personal experience. One of the other big drivers for me was seeing all these things that are happening that are outside of our control. And I really said to myself, what can I do in just my corner of the world to make things a little bit better? And that was another big driver to me. Finding Mayfly. And so I think either for anyone interesting in mentoring, it just gives you something to do where you know you're doing something positive or like we touched on a little bit for the kids, just something to get out of their day to day and try something new and get into a new experience where they don't have to think about anything else that they've been going through and can just focus on that moment for a few hours on a weekend. [00:33:38] Speaker C: To that end, at the end of every session, the kids get to take home and a nice little swag bag. Honestly, they get, they get a little sling bag packed full of accessories for fly fishing. They get their own rod and reel. They have, they have in theory all of the equipment and knowledge to do this on their own. So you know, they, hopefully they can, they can, yeah. Oh yeah. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Have that outlet for the rest of their lives whenever they need it. For sure. [00:34:05] Speaker C: Exactly. [00:34:06] Speaker B: So as we completely wrap this up, of course we're going to have links and information in the description of this episode. But where should people go to learn more about the Poughkeepsie Mayfly project? Whether you're a guardian or somebody from a sister organization is something like MHA say they have a family that might be able to do well with this or say that you're listening to this and you want to be a mentor and get involved. How do people learn more? [00:34:31] Speaker A: Or if you want to donate. [00:34:32] Speaker B: What was that? [00:34:33] Speaker C: Or if you'd like to donate. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Yeah, donate to part of what we need to do. [00:34:37] Speaker B: Yes. [00:34:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that's kind of try to, try to segue into that. So I, I think the, honestly the best place is the mayflyproject.com There is so much information on that website. There's, there are case studies, there are personal testimonies, there are interviews, there are, if you can think about it, it's there. They have separate drop down things for if you're interested in registering a child, if you're interested in becoming a mentor. So there it's, it's very well delineated insofar as that. So, so if you just want some general information, you can, you can go directly to the mayflyproject.com if you would like information on Our specific project, you would probably just type in Mayfly Project Poughkeepsie. And that's where you could find the donation buttons. That's where you can find our little bio blurbs. You can see a picture of us. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Very good. [00:35:36] Speaker C: Yeah, the donations are kind of important. As I mentioned, the children do get a little goodie bag at the end. And unfortunately, none of that is free. All donations go to fund the local projects. More the merrier. It costs about $800 a child per child per outing. So the more children we have, the more costs we incur. And we want as many children as we can get. So obviously, that's exponential. So break out them wallets. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Break out them wallets. Let's. You heard it, Hudson Valley. Come on, let's help out. Let's get things going. And if there's anybody out there who's got some fly fishing background, whether you make flies or if there's things that you can donate as well, doesn't have to be the money, per se. Right. What if they donate supplies? [00:36:24] Speaker C: Absolutely. We would happily take them. We are. We've been trying to organize with a couple of local companies some sort of raffle program or something like that. Perhaps something we can go have, like some sort of event where people could bid on things or. Or like I said, just raffle. So we would be more than happy to accept donations in that regard. We can, you know, we can. We can find place for that if they. If they have time they'd like to donate. We'd love another mentor and always use another mentor. Strictly speaking, they don't even have to have fly fishing experience. If they just would like to come on and hang out and. And do a nice thing for some kids who could use a nice thing, we'd love to have them, if they have any. Anything that they think could be relevant, if they have some. If they have fundraising experience, if they have counseling experience, if they have the gamut. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Sounds good. So, again, we'll make sure that we have all the links in the. Make sure we have all the links and information in the description of this episode. So if you want to learn more, if you want to get involved somehow, you can do so. Mayfi project. Of course, here in Poughkeepsie, they are doing wonderful things helping out the foster children of this area and also getting something out of it themselves as the mentors. If there's something that you're looking to do to give back, or if you know a child that could really benefit from this, we highly recommend that you look into this. Rory, Stephanie, I really appreciate your time. [00:37:47] Speaker C: I do want to point out it is closed to children who aren't in the foster care system. [00:37:52] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Good thing to say. Of course, we've been saying this is a foster care program. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Yes. [00:37:57] Speaker B: So specifically those in foster care. But you know what? There. There's still a big enough community in this area, so. [00:38:05] Speaker C: And I'd love to help every last one of them. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, guys, Rory, Stephanie, thank you so much for your time. [00:38:11] Speaker C: Appreciate you, Mr. Connor. Thank you very much. We appreciate you as well. [00:38:14] Speaker B: Absolutely.