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by Rich Esposito
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association November 2001 Newsletter)
As our annual Sportsperson of the
Year Award Dinner/Dance approaches, to be held at the Crystal Point Yacht Club on October
28th, I am somewhat disappointed at the number of reservations we have received
so far. This event, being the 2nd largest fundraiser of the year, has the
capability of serving up to three hundred, but every year we struggle to get half that. I
want to encourage all clubs that have not yet sent in their reservations to do so ASAP. We
need your support and we need it now! There is still time to get those reservations in and
help support our efforts.
Along those lines, I’d like to
take this opportunity to congratulate this year’s winner, Gary Caputi, for all he’s
done for the JCAA, as well as the recreational fishermen. Gary has been an active member
of the JCAA since the late 80’s, and has served as the Master of Ceremonies for both
the JCAA Fluke Tournament and the Sportsperson of the Year Dinner/Dance. He is a major
contributor of his time and effort towards our monthly newsletter, and a great deal of the
success of our newsletter can be directly attributed to him. I realize that I have only
mentioned a small portion of his many accomplishments, but I’m sure we all would
agree that no one deserves this award more than Gary, and I sincerely hope we will all
make every effort to attend this year’s presentation and show your appreciation to
Gary for all he’s done.
I’d like to take a moment to
thank all those involved in this year’s Governor’s Surf Fishing Tournament,
whether involved in the organizing, donating of prizes, or volunteering of time and
effort, towards making this year’s tournament an overwhelming success. Although the
weather wasn’t ideal, there were still over 1,000 entrants, and from what I saw,
everyone enjoyed the day. Besides the fishing, there were activities for the children,
organized by the JCAA Youth Committee headed by Greg Kucharewski. A special word of thanks
goes out to Chairman Paul Smith who, along with presiding over this tournament, also had
his hands filled with his daughter’s wedding, which, coincidently, was the same day.
This clearly shows the dedication of this man, and we are extremely fortunate to have this
man on our side.
We are in the process of forming a
Nomination Committee for the selection of the officers for next year. Anyone interested in
volunteering, please leave your name at the JCAA office, or you can contact any member of
the Board of Directors. We are desperately in need of some new blood to help the JCAA
continue to move forward and to take some of the burden off those individuals who have
consistently put forth the effort needed to keep our association strong.
