To promote family, and support positive reinforcement and quality time together within our community. Our Mission: The mission of The Casting Shadows Foundation is to promote the importance of fatherhood and male mentorship in the lives of children. To promote family, support positive reinforcement and quality time together, and to sponsor activities within the community that add values, skills,
fun, and memories to the lives of children and their families. We support fathers and male mentors in this mission by providing organized activities and new opportunities to bond together and encourage the community to join in adding to the value of making great memories. Our History: The Casting Shadows Foundation was formed in 2018 with the mission of promoting fatherhood and male mentorship of our youth through fly fishing. Through the generous support of the community the foundation was able to fund fifty full-day, professionally guided fly-fishing float trips on our local rivers with dads, male mentors, and the young ones that look up to them. Over the five years that followed, through Covid, and through it all we made such an impact on so many young people’s lives. Providing an opportunity to spend a full day with their dad or other male mentor enjoying learning to fly fish and taking in all that Montana has to offer has been truly incredible. We are thankful for every opportunity we have been given and to our community of local fly fisherman in the support of our mission. They have truly been incredible mentors and leaders on these trips. And to you all, our community of supporters, friends, and family, for helping us to provide the opportunity to do what is absolutely most important, and that is spending quality time together. It has been an incredible journey so far. Our Future: Dana and I have decided to make a change and broaden our mission. While fly fishing may still well be a component of what we do, it frankly has just become too expensive, requires a very large annual fundraising event, and it is not lost on us that it is too much to ask of the community knowing we can do a lot more with less. We feel we can have as large or hopefully even larger impact with less cost than10 fishing trips per summer. Our intentions are to put together and sponsor four or five different projects per year. These projects will include events we have enjoyed in the past such as teaching kids at the Outdoorsman Church how to tie flies as part of their summer camp activities and taking children from the Watson’s Children’s Center fishing at a local pond. We hope to add father/ child events such as; beginner fly tying classes, a white water rafting trip that could include as many as 10 dads and their children for a one day event, a family movie night, hiking excursions, or a trip to the local butterfly house for those with younger kids.. We would also like to encourage and promote community by helping people get involved in community events. We intend to do so by promoting volunteerism and “giving back” and doing so together with coordinated events with our foundation. Our Foundation believes in the value of family, the value of fatherhood and positive male role models and spending time together with your children. Partner that with the opportunities our beautiful and supportive local community has to offer, we believe we can help take advantage of all of that, together. We thank you for your support to date and look forward to our new chapter!
