Box:
Sponsors and volunteers are needed for this event. For more
information on helping or attending, please call Doris Clarkston, president of
the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Benefit for the Disabled at (248) 618-8900
or William FitzGerald (CQ), the vice
president of the nonprofit at (248) 736-9023. Those interested can visit the
website at www.ocsdbenefit.org.
By JERRY WOLFFE
The 28th Annual Disabled Children’s Fishing Derby, sponsored
by the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, is scheduled for Aug. 13 at Dodge Park
No. 4 in Waterford between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
More than 100 volunteers will help an estimated 700 children
with physical and cognitive impairments have a “great day of boat rides, games,
and food and fun,” according to Doris Clarkston, the president of the Oakland
County Sheriff’s Office Benefit for the Disabled.
“We also will have the command staff at the fishing derby to
help cook and serve food,” Clarkston said. She added that the Sheriff’s
Department’s Marine Safety Division/Dive Team and an EMS unit will be at the
Cass Lake location where the park is located “to ensure the safety of the
children and other participants on the water.”
Our Lady of the Lakes High School Football team will be in
attendance at the park at 4250 Parkway to help load the children into and off
of Pontoon boats. Owners of the boats have volunteered them for the outing.
“A lot of these children seldom have opportunities to go
boating and be in a park,” she said. “We are working as an organization to
build an accessible playground to enhance the park experience.”
The department will provide lunch, fishing poles, games, and
fun for each child. The children with disabilities will come from all over
Oakland County “to have a great day,” Clarkston said.
Jerry Wolffe is the
writer-in-residence/advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He
can be reached at 586 263-8950.
