Catch A Dream

The Catch a dream foundation is a wonderful organization designed to give youth’s with life-threatening illness’s a great outdoor experience, below is more info about the program and of course a link to their website if you would like to explore it further.

http://catchadream.org/

Catch-A-Dream grants once-in-a-lifetime outdoor experiences to children 18 years old or younger who have a life-threatening illness.

Catch-A-Dream's singular purpose is to provide consumptive use outdoor experiences to fill the “gap” created when the Make-A-Wish Foundation established national policy that precludes granting a child a wish that involves hunting or use of “...firearms, hunting bows, or other hunting or sport-shooting equipment.”


A Program for Youth with Precious Little Time to Lose

Catch-A-Dream gives children with life-threatening illnesses the chance of a lifetime to experience an outdoor adventure

Bruce Brady, noted outdoorsman, author and sculptor drew strength and hope from his beloved outdoor experiences. During the last days of his personal struggle with cancer he was deeply concerned that the world’s largest children’s wish granting organization had established national policy that created a glaring gap in its service to qualifying children. Thus, one segment of the qualifying child population would no longer be able to realize their greatest dream; a dream that Bruce and countless outdoorsmen considered worthy and appropriate. He envisioned a program that would fill this service gap and provide life-changing hunting and fishing experiences for children facing life-threatening illness at a time when “....these children need to know that hope does, indeed, exist.”

Although Bruce did not survive long enough to accomplish anything beyond sharing his vision with friends and family, the program was created a few months after his death in 2000 by some of those same friends and family members. Ultimately, in 2003, the Catch-A-Dream Foundation was chartered to provide a 501c3 home specifically to support the Program by the same name.

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)”

It is this very message of hope, as promised in Isaiah 40:31, that we seek to instill in these children and their families. We use hunting and fishing as opportune tools to expose them to the “…wonders of God...” that await them in “The High Country,” as they spend time in the outdoors, away from the bleak and sterile world of medical facilities, treaments, and hospital gowns, but in the presence of The Creator who is the Author of real hope.

On each trip, the children and the family members who accompany them, are surrounded by outdoors-minded people who understand that these children are often “...sick and tired of being sick and tired!” A designated Catch-A-Dream host accompanies each family and, together with outfitters and local volunteers, facilitate their dream experience, love and nurture them through the strong personal relationships that inevitably are forged in the lodge, on the stream or in the woods. Hosts and volunteers often become their best friends, and remain a part of their families long after the dream trip has concluded. As one volunteer eloquently stated, “We can’t change the whole world; but we can change someone’s whole world for at least a short period!” Many parents have confirmed that the mission is consistently accomplished!