Cast for a Cure was a HUGE Succcess!

704 Outdoors teamed up with the Carolina Crankers Bass Club out of Union County, to put together one of the most incredible benefit events to ever hit Badin Lake. On April 22, 2017, 61 boats gathered at the Alcoa boat landing on Badin Lake to compete in a bass fishing tournament, but more importantly, to raise money for a very special individual.  Corbin Sikes is a three year old little boy that has already had to go through more in his short time here on earth, than most of us will have to endure in our entire lives.

Last year Corbin was your typical two year old little boy.  Wide open and full of energy, with a smile that could light up even the darkest of rooms.  Corbin went from being that two year old little boy full of energy, to all of the sudden not feeling so well.  Corbin began to run a high fever and also had a double ear infection.  Even with medical treatment, Corbin’s fever did not seem to go away.  Shortly thereafter, Corbin’s mother noticed a large bruise and a lot of swelling on his left shoulder.  The next day Corbin would end up down at the Levine Children’s Hospital, where the family would receive the devastating news that no parent should ever have to hear.  Corbin’s blood levels were extremely low, and further tests would lead the doctors to diagnose him with Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.  Corbin would require his first blood transfusion during that stay in the hospital, and doctors said he would require more as time went on.  The last year has been very hard on Corbin and his family, but this disease never stood a chance against a little boy as strong as Corbin.

When I found out about Corbin’s diagnosis, I knew I wanted to do something to help.  I decided to organize a benefit fishing tournament for Corbin and his family.  I scheduled the date for October 8^th, 2016 on Badin Lake.  I began getting everything together, and promoting the event.  I wanted this thing to be huge, and wanted to raise as much money as possible for Corbin.  As we got closer to October 8^th, things were not looking so good.  The weather did not seem to want to cooperate, and on October 8^th, hurricane Matthew came barreling through our area dropping inches of rain, and wind gusts over 45 mph.  We had to cancel the event, and would have to reschedule it for the Spring.  I was devastated.  All that hard work, and we had nothing to give the family.

I was pretty beat down for the next couple of days until I came to the realization that God works in mysterious ways, and I realized that this happened for a reason. I began to figure out ways to make the event bigger and better for the Spring.  I immediately started reaching out to more sponsors and decided I wanted to make this event really stand out, and be something that people would want to come back to year after year.  Not just for the fishing, but the atmosphere, and more importantly, the cause.  With the extra time to plan the event I was able to make some amazing additions to the event.

For the Spring tournament I decided to put together a raffle as another way to raise money for Corbin and his family. We would also be adding donuts and coffee, hotdogs and hamburgers, Monster Energy, event shirts, and live entertainment to the line-up.  One of the best things that happened for the Spring event was being given the opportunity to link up with Rodney and Lisa from the Carolina Crankers.  I was fortunate enough to have them agree to come out and host the tournament, from blast-off to weigh-ins.  There are no other people or group that would have been a better fit for this event then them.  If you follow any fishing pages on Facebook, I am sure you saw some of Lisa’s posts promoting the event.  I don’t think a day went by that Rodney and Lisa didn’t do something to help make this event awesome.

As we got closer to the event date, everything really started to come together.  Raffle items started piling up in my kitchen, the event shirts came in, and we got up to 34 boats for pre-registration, thanks to Repent Arms who donated a Ruger 10/22 for a pre-registration drawing.  All the food was lined up, with donuts from Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and coffee from S and D.  For the afternoon, Bryant Roland was going to be bringing his huge grills up and cooking hotdogs and hamburgers for everyone, which were donated by Matt Barringer.  Monster Energy was all set to be on scene handing out drinks, and we even had Terry Roberson coming out to play some live music.  The only thing left to do before the big day was to try and get a couple hours of sleep.

When the morning of the event rolled around, I don’t think any of us knew what to expect.  I was nervous as to how many boats would show up, but that all changed when we pulled into the parking lot at 4am!  There were already around ten boats waiting for us in the parking lot when we arrived.  Cabela’s was there with us to set up the pop up tents, and we started taking registrations right away.  Things started to get pretty busy, and as we got closer to blast off time more and more people started showing up.  The Badin Police Department actually had to come out and help direct traffic because we had so many people showing up!

Blast off time was here, and we ended up with a total of 61 boats!  When we came back in from blast off I finally had a moment to take it all in and was amazed by what I saw.  As I looked around the parking lot, I could not believe the overwhelming amount of support that came out to show Corbin that he is not alone through this fight.  When we planned the event back in October, we did not know if we could even get 30 boats to show up, so to look around and see trucks and trailers everywhere was incredible.  There was not an empty parking spot in the lot or the field next to the ramp.

As the anglers were out on the water, everyone that came out to help got busy getting everything else ready. Bryant Roland showed up with all of his guys and equipment to start cooking the food.  Monster Energy came out and set up, and we had live music playing the entire time thanks to Terry Roberson.  Rodney and Lisa started setting up for weigh-in, and we all just started helping wherever we could. Corbin even came out and helped move some things around in his gator!  We got all the raffle items out on the table, and as soon as people started to see what was up for grabs, raffle tickets started selling like crazy.  Zachary Arnold from Cabela’s was selling raffle tickets for us, and I think after this event he probably never wants to see another raffle ticket after as many as he sold!

Angler’s started coming back in early around 1pm, due to the heat and tough conditions on the water.  We started to see some good five fish bags start rolling in around 2:30, and quite a few big fish started hitting the scales.  We were fortunate enough to have John Rowland as our announcer during the weigh in.  He kept everyone laughing and on their toes the entire time, and if you didn’t want to smile for your picture, he was going to do whatever he needed to, to make you!  After everyone weighed in it was time to take a look at the scoreboard and figure out who our winners were.  This should have been an easy task, however I am the one that recorded the weights and I was never good at math growing up.  I made a mistake when writing down the weights so we had to do a little fixing to things straightened out before we could announce our winners.  Roy Winkler and Chris Curtis ended up winning the tournament with a 17 pound bag of fish.  Second place and big fish for the event went to Jody and Austin Moore with 16 pounds 12 oz and big fish of 6 pounds 10 oz.  Third place went to Will Davis and Jesse Wensil with 16 pounds 6 oz.

Throughout the weigh-in process Bryant Roland and his guys were passing out hot dogs and hamburgers left and right, Monster Energy was passing out drinks faster than they could restock them, and Zachary Arnold’s hands were going numb from tearing off so many raffle tickets!  It was finally time for the raffle to begin and Cobin got us started by drawing the first winner’s name.  We ended up giving away over 50 raffle prizes which included eight guided hunting and fishing trips!  We had a huge crowd stick around for the raffle and thanks to all of the incredible sponsors, we gave away over $8,000 worth of raffle prizes!

The turnout for this event greatly exceeded my expectations. We were able to raise a significant amount of money, and will be presenting Corbin and his family with a check very soon!  This money was raised through entry fees, donations, raffle ticket sales, shirt sales, and donations from our sponsors.  I could not have made this event half of what it was without everyone’s help and support.  I cannot thank everyone enough that came out and had some part in making this day awesome.  To Rodney and Lisa, Bryant Roland, Matt Barringer, Terry Robeson, Zachary Arnold, the 704 Outdoors team, my wife, my family, my friends and each and every other person that helped in any way, thank you all from the bottom of my heart!  Putting this event together and seeing it turn out the way it did was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  Thank you to everyone that came out to the ramp and stuck around to show your support for Corbin and his family.  I ask that everyone continue to pray for Corbin and his family, and please stay tuned for many more incredible events!

Corey Shaylor

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