Fishing tournament to benefit fire explorers across the country
By Karen Robes Meeks
Contributing writer
About 100 people from Southern California will compete in a fishing tournament to benefit fire explorers across the country.
Participants will depart from Boathouse on the Bay in Long Beach Sept. 7 for a day of fishing in Catalina as part of the Fifth Annual Kevin Woyjeck Fishing Tournament.
The sold-out event supports the Kevin Woyjeck Explorers for Life Association, a nonprofit that honors Woyjeck, one of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died in 2013 while battling the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona. Kevin Woyjeck, whose birthday is in early September, would have been 27.
The tournament combines Kevin Woyjeck’s passion of firefighting and fishing and will use local fishing boats he used as a kid.
“Kevin loved to fish prior to being a firefighter and he loved being an explorer,” said Joe Woyjeck, Kevin’s father and a retired firefighter. “We wanted to give back to the fire community.”
Kevin Woyjeck was an explorer at Post 9 for many years and credited that experience for shaping him into a responsible adult.
The association’s mission is to help aspiring youths to become first responders by assisting them financially and with equipment.
Since its inception in 2013, the association has donated $220,000 in scholarships and fire equipment, including more than 400 helmets to fire explorers across the U.S.
The association has helped fire explorers based New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Alabama, Nevada, Arizona and California.
The tournament is one of the association’s main fundraising events, raising anywhere between $20,000 and $25,000.
Joe Woyjeck was moved by a social media post written on the association’s wall by a former Los Angeles County Fire Department explorer:
“As a former L.A.Co.F.D. Explorer with Post 10 at FS166 in El Monte I would like to say thank you sir/ma’am for the explorers for life foundation. Being from El Monte I would probably be in a gang if it wasn’t for the explorer program and thanks to the explorer program I am currently in the US Army pursuing a job as a hotshot like Kevin Woyjeck. Thank you for all you do for the explorers I am very grateful.”
“What an amazing story to share with us,” Woyjeck said. “This is why we have our nonprofit. This is how we want to carry on the lives of Kevin and the Granite Mountain Hotshots.”
For more information on how to donate money or raffle items for the tournament, visit explorersforlife.org or call 562-547-8919