MOUNT VERNON — The Freedom Center’s program, Hooked on Fishing — Not Drugs, has wrapped up for the summer and, according to prevention coordinator Melisa Hathaway, the new program went well.
On Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the summer, a staff member from the Freedom Center took a small group of children, between kindergarten and fifth grade, to Hiawatha Park, where the group talked about several aspects of fish native to Ohio.
“We taught the kids where to find fish, where the fish habitat would be, the kinds of fish that we would find in Ohio,” said Hathaway.
In addition, she said, the children were taught about fishing tackle and equipment.
The Freedom Center provided programming for three hours per week though the summer.
“We did these Hooked on Fishing lessons with the kids,” said Hathaway, “and we likened addiction to ... a fish being hooked, and how it was real difficult — when you got hooked to drugs — to get off [drugs].”
One aspect of the program was emphasizing that there are other activities to get hooked on, such as sports and hobbies, explained Hathaway.
The program concluded with a fishing trip to Foundation Park on Monday.
“The fishing trip was a culmination of all that we had been doing,” said Hathaway.
The program was a new take on the Freedom Center’s summer programming, according to Hathaway.
“This was something new we tried,” she explained. “This year we decided we’d go with this program and see how it would go this year and it seemed to go off pretty well with the kids.”
The Freedom Center will have a booth at the Family Fun Day on Sept. 28; one facet of this booth will be the Hooked on Fishing program, according to Hathaway.
