Join us for our annual Crab Feed Fundraiser on May 17! Once again we’ll be at the Community Building at the Walla Walla County Fairgrounds, serving up a fabulous meal including (of course!) shelled crab while having fun with a dollar raffle and silent and live auctions. Funds raised from this event support all of Tri-State Steelheaders’ habitat restoration and education programs year-round.

Doors open at 5pm. Tickets are $50 and need to be purchased in advance; call us at (509)529-3543 or stop by the Visit Walla Walla Kiosk at 26 E. Main Street. Beer and wine will be available for purchase, so 21 and over only, please.

We hope to see you there!

We have an opening for a student board member! This position, intended for a current undergraduate or graduate student in the Walla Walla area (continuing fall 2018), is a great opportunity for a young person interested in habitat, fisheries, conservation, environmental education, or angling to get inside experience with the running of a small nonprofit organization. We’re hoping to fill this position as soon as possible with someone who will continue for the 2018-2019 term. Full details and application information are available in the Position Description.

Please spread the word!

Our winter newsletter is out now! If you’re a member, you should see it in your mailbox soon, but it’s also available to read online. Highlights in this issue include a recap of our annual meeting and update on the Salmon in School program. Check it out!

Students who live in Tri-State Steelheaders’ service area (Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, and Asotin Counties) and aspire to a career in natural resources in Washington are invited to apply for the Washington State Regional Fisheries Coalition’s Paul G. Ancich Memorial Scholarship! This $1400 award is open to high school seniors and current college students, and applications are due April 1. Full information on how to apply is available on the scholarship flyer.

To donate to our annual fund and help continue these programs for 2018, click here!

As the days are growing shorter and the air cooler, we can look forward to some prime fishing days ahead. But as we do so, we realize that there are kids in our community who have never experienced the joy of catching a fish.

Kids like Dielan Legrand. This year at the Bennington Lake Kids’ Fishing Day, he won a new fishing pole in our raffle. “I didn’t catch a fish, but I won a new pole!”

That was one pretty excited 10-year-old. That prize and ten more like it were made possible by donors like you.

Community support also allows us to take kids like Dielan on fishing trips in our Fishing 101 classes. Since the start of the class in 2016, 13 kids have learned to catch a fish.

We also know that there are kids out there who have never seen a salmon or heard about the vital role they play in our local ecosystem.

Through Salmon in School, 150 kids in College Place, Prescott, and Walla Walla schools the experience of raising salmon in their classrooms during the 2016-17 school year.

Kids like those in Angela Adams’s third grade class in Prescott. “The salmon have helped the students learn responsibility, respect for life, and create a welcoming atmosphere,” says Angela. “We have enjoyed every part of this process and the students think of the salmon as their friends.”

Thanks to generous community support, we’ve added Salmon in School in Pomeroy and Touchet this year.

Though that puts Salmon in School at ten tanks, we know there’s room for many more.

Your tax-deductible donation to Tri-State Steelheaders’ annual fund helps make it possible to provide opportunities like these to hundreds of local kids each year:

• Your $20 gift will give a kid a fishing pole.
• Your $100 gift will give a classroom a lesson on the salmon life cycle
• Your $1,200 gift will provide a new classroom with a fish tank and supplies for Salmon in School

Your support is critical to our success. Without you, we couldn’t continue our work to introduce youth to the joys of salmon and fishing. Your gift makes a big difference tomorrow and every day!