Back Story: Jerseys for St. Jude
It’s FLW Outdoors Week on eBay.
If you browse the gargantuan online auction house these days – and who doesn’t – you might have noticed the four FLW Outdoors shirts that wear the logos of various sponsors. While the starting bids of between $50 and $100 might seem a bit steep for a fishing jersey, consider that these are special shirts. They won’t help you catch more bass, or cast farther, or be a smarter angler, but they’re bound to make you feel better about yourself nonetheless.
The quartet of shirts were placed in auction by Paul Strege, an EverStart co-angler who took it upon himself to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a treatment facility in Memphis that serves all children with debilitating diseases and other ailments. All of the money raised will go to the hospital, and Strege hopes to make it an annual event. A couple of things prompted Strege to focus on helping St. Jude. His involvement with the wildly popular Dick Hiley/St. Jude Bass Classic on the Mississippi River out of Wabasha, Minn., each summer convinced him that it was a worthy cause. Then, nine years ago when his son was born 3 months premature with a variety of associated health complications, it became a more compelling crusade.
Once he set out on a fund-raising mission associated with the Dick Hiley/St. Jude Bass Classic, Strege contacted various pros and FLW Outdoors. Nobody turned him down, and Allie Gibbs of the FLW Outdoors Community Outreach Department sent him three shirts, which are the latest posted on eBay. Those shirts have a starting bid of $50. Ranger Boats provided the fourth jersey, whose starting bid is $100. Why the difference? Because Forrest L. Wood himself autographed the Ranger shirt, and you can bet it will go for more than $100.
Headed into its 13th year, the Dick Hiley/St. Jude Bass Classic has raised almost $1 million for St. Jude’s. Strege’s jersey gambit hasn’t been nearly so successful, but considering this is his first year, it’s been an auspicious beginning. He’s bumping a few thousand dollars, mainly thanks to the $1,130 a bidder paid for a Dave Lefebre Team Chevy jersey. Lefebre, who’s a friend of Strege’s, not only autographed the shirt, but promised to take the winning bidder fishing if the bid amount was more than $1,000. So now Lefebre has a new fishing buddy: Lealand Hansford of Oxford, Pa. Other pros, including Brent Ehrler, Anthony Gagliardi, Clark Wendlandt, have helped make the jersey campaign successful.
Strege didn’t stop with the pros. He also asked various fishing tackle manufacturers such as MinnKota and Rapala for products that could be raffled off, and they responded with enough goodies to raise more money through $25 and $50 donations.
The Minnesota angler, who’s been fishing with FLW Outdoors since 2001, plans to continue soliciting donations for St. Jude through the rest of spring, and then pick it up again next fall. His Jerseys for St. Jude initiative began in fits and starts last year, but Strege is confident that other pros and anglers around the country will support it and that it will grow exponentially.
Helping sick children is a cause everybody can get behind. If you want to pitch in, go to Strege’s blog and start bidding. And when you buy one of the jerseys, you can bet pros will be standing in line at FLW Tour events to autograph it.