The Voices of the Middle Branch interview series aims to celebrate the communities around the Middle Branch through visual storytelling.
Henry, founder and president of Fish Finders
"I got my love of fishing from my father. I’m originally from North Pennsylvania. I grew up fishing, we would go out every Saturday. I’ve been fishing at Middle Branch because I have a lot of relatives in the Westport, Cherry Hill area. I’m focused there because I have more connections with family and friends in that area.
Oh man, I’ve been fishing—helping kids, almost 10 years now. My best memory is just the kids. I mean the look on their faces, some of them have never even been to the water to see it up close, and it’s sad. Your inner-city kids don’t see that, you know, never touched the water. So, my best memory is working with the younger kids more than anything.
We do a lot to raise money to help kids and have these fishing programs. We take kids fishing and we try to teach them that there is more to life than just video games. You know, we let them go out and experience the outdoors. We just try to help the community as best we can and the kids as best we can because a lot of kids, once they go out, enjoy it. We donate fishing rods and hold different little trips for the kids.
Most of the time, I produce this out of pocket or from a few donations from friends and stuff, but I’m trying to build on it [Fish Finders organization]. I have a lot of people, older guys, that work with me in the program. I would love to build a nonprofit program where we have a base where even in the wintertime, we have classes that people can come to and learn about fishing and crabbing.
If I do a program now, over 100 or something kids will show up—easy, and it’s growing more and more. Although, my participant age group really goes from say 5-years-old to adults, because a lot of adults would love to fish, they just don’t know how. You know, they enjoy it, but no one’s there to show them how to do it.”
“My best memory is just the kids. I mean the look on their faces, some of them have never even been to the water to see it up close, and it’s sad. Your inner-city kids don’t see that, you know, never touched the water. So, my best memory is working with the younger kids more than anything.”