The Most Important Delivery to the People of the Amazon
The soccer ball has been an important symbol of respect and love on our fishing trips to the Amazon for many years. The whole idea started around 2006 when our good friend Evan Firstman traveled to Brazil on one of our fishing trips with multiple Frisbees and a soccer ball in his luggage. Evan, a big Frisbee fan saw the opportunity to put a Frisbee and one of the white sand beaches in the amazon together, much like the Eastern shore of Maryland where he grew up. Evan would break out the Frisbee every afternoon after fishing and toss it to anyone who would make themselves available. An afternoon of toss and catch, swimming and hanging out on the beach became very popular with the guests and staff.
It was fun to see the frustration in the faces of many of the locals, some who were obvious athletes but most of whom had never had the opportunity to wing a frisbee. So, one afternoon Evan would unveil what is the most recognized piece of sports equipment in all of South America, the soccer ball. It was not like soccer balls were nonexistent in the Amazon Basin, but they were hard to get, quite expensive and when one was available, it would not take long to wear it out. So, for the rest of the week, the Frisbee had to take a back seat to the new toy. One afternoon the staff even took the ball, got in a couple of fishing boats and headed down the river to the closest village for a more formal game of Futebol.
This piece of sports equipment meant so much to the Brazilian countryside and the idea that they could go months or more without a soccer ball was not an option, so for the next few years we would include in our luggage, a soccer ball or two, a pump, the occasional pair of cleats and one year even some kids jerseys. So, when we started building our website we did not want to just have Go-Fund-Me or IndieGoGo campaigns, we wanted to do something different. There is something to be said for unwrapping a present instead of simply receiving a gift card.
The “Soccer Ball” program is what started our Care & Share program on our site. Our Care & Share program is designed to help people in need like the indigenous people of the Amazon. Money is raised through not only donations but through the purchase of many items to be brought to remote villages like personal items such as shoes and blankets to educational products and school supplies.
How the Soccer Ball program works is this, for $35 you can purchase a ball from our online store. The profits made from the sale will go directly to people in the Amazon for special needs like digging a well for fresh drinking water or fixing a generator. The Soccer Ball will travel with us, or you if you are going on one of our trips to one of the villages to be presented them as a token of your support. The products on our Care & Share program will always be delivered in person by us, one of our trip hosts or our clients and friends. We are so excited to kick off our new website with creative ideas like the Soccer Ball program. We hope you will find it as fun and rewarding as we do and contribute as you see fit.
Check it in our online store: www.bucketlistflyfishing.com/store
Join us for an exciting free get-together on zoom. We are going to discuss our upcoming seasons and events and recap some events and outings we have just finished. The highlight of the night will be our January 2023 season at our centerpiece fishing location in the Amazon jungle.
This August we are finally getting another opportunity to have our Care&Share program put to work. This will be our best chance since the outbreak of COVID to have the opportunity to visit several indigenous villages in the heart of the Amazon Jungle.
Terra Preta is a remote village on Xeruini River, state of Roraima, Brazil.
The 2022 Season is going to be amazing. These fish have not seen an angler in almost 3 years and we still have a ton of lagoons that have never been fished on our centerpiece program on Rio Novo