Making Good Season 6 Episode 9 Recap: C.A.S.T. for Kids
Kirby travels to Zavalla, Texas to help C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation with their annual fishing tournament.
With chapters all over the country, the C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation enriches the lives of children with special needs, supports their families, and strengthens communities through fishing. They empower communities to celebrate children with special needs, making them feel valued and loved so they can overcome limitations.
To join the team, Kirby attempts to sell himself as a pro fisherman to the C.A.S.T. for Kids Regional Director, Jim Behnken.
Jim, who has been with the organization for over twenty years, tells Kirby his job is simple with the kids: “Take 'em out, show' em a great time, have fun with them, honor them, and value them.”
Jim started with C.A.S.T. For Kids as a volunteer boat captain, then became a volunteer coordinator before being offered a full time position almost ten years ago. Jim credits the organization for saving his life after losing his wife to leukemia 13 years ago.
“You never know where your life is going to go from that,” he tells Kirby. “You could either fall down the gutter or you can try to do the best you can, and when C.A.S.T. for Kids came along…it probably saved my life.”
Now, doing everything in honor of his wife’s memory, Jim says he’ll keep up his work with the organization until the day he physically can’t anymore, “I’m 62-years-old, but every Saturday I’m a 10-year-old kid again.”
Jim’s best advice for Kirby is patience: “Show patience, show love, show consideration, show respect. You’ll make a friend, you’ll be a hero tomorrow. You’ll be a hero to a child tomorrow, I promise you.”
Now part of the team, Kirby meets more local C.A.S.T. for Kids leaders, like Jaime West.
Jaime, the Event Coordinator for the Lake Sam Rayburn North chapter for C.A.S.T. for Kids, has a child with a disability.
“His name is Jayden, he’s 16. He has autism and he’s intellectually disabled,” she tells Kirby. “Because I have a kid with special needs myself, I’m aware of the lack of things for them to do and things that they just don’t get to do outside of school, or in their home with their family.”
Jaime found C.A.S.T. For Kids while searching online for organizations or activities in their area her son could get involved with, “They said that there weren't any events in our area, and I said, ‘Challenge accepted.”
In just a few hours, Jaime was on the phone with the organization to set up an event in her area.
Now, she needs Kirby’s help to pull off their second event. Expecting over 150 people to be in attendance, Jaime hopes to provide kids and their families the same wonderful experience Jayden has with the organization.
“It’s an opportunity that only happens once in a lifetime for a lot of people,” she says. “If I can do this one event once a year, and serve 40, 50 children and their families, and see their smiles…I’ll do it time and time again.”
Kirby joins Jaime for a day of dirty work, sorting bait and setting up the tackle boxes and fishing rods, quickly learning a lot goes into setting up a C.A.S.T. for Kids event. Then, he meets Jaime’s son, Jayden, at the lake.
“I remember the first fish I caught, I didn’t think I ever wanted to go again,” Jayden tells Kirby. “But then I did it again, and I’m like, ‘I’m pretty sure I like this. I’m just gonna do this for the rest of my life.”
It’s the day of the 2nd Annual C.A.S.T. for Kids event, with over 40 kids from different backgrounds arriving with their families, along with the volunteers, boat captains, and donors. The event serves as a day where a family can enjoy time together without having to worry about their child or their needs, and experience the joy of watching their child reel in their first fish.
Kirby meets the Maronge family, who drive all over Texas so their son, Curtis, can attend as many C.A.S.T. for Kids events as possible.
His parents say the smile on his face and excitement makes it all worth it. Gracie, who is known notoriously as “Curtis’s Mom”, says there’s not many organizations for kids to take part of, and with Curtis being so medically fragile with his diagnoses, they’ve even been turned away from groups who deemed him “too special needs.”
“He gets so much joy out of the people,” Gracie says. “Coming to see all our old friends, coming to make new friends, Curtis has never met a stranger. He’s never met anybody he hasn’t loved immediately…Curtis’s life is so much better and so much fuller because these people give so much of their heart.”
With the tournament about to start, Kirby gets assigned to Jayden’s boat with Captain Charles Watts, a retired aircraft mechanic who lives on Sam Rayburn lake. The fishers cast their lines and wait; though the fish are a bit stubborn, everyone has the time of their lives on the boats.
“It feels good every time,” Jayden says, after proudly reeling in his bass fish.
Back on land, everyone loads onto shore with energy and excitement filling the air, marking the beginning of the fish weigh in. Though not much attention is given to how much the fish weighs; everyone is too focused on the smile every kid has on their face.
“The smile that the kids have, and the parents, when they are weighing their fish and they receive their medals and plaques is absolutely priceless,” says Jaime. “To be able to see the other families come and experience this, because I know as a parent of a kid with a disability, life is hard. Life is hard for the children and life is hard for the parents…and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Jamie says there are small towns all over the country, that need outreach and organizations like this; they need to know that their kids have something to look forward to.
“This whole opportunity has allowed me to help a lot of different families,” says Jaime. “Not just with C.A.S.T. for Kids, but knowledge and resources. I’m glad that I was chosen to do this, because I get to watch my own child progress every single day.”
“You do it to honor those kids. I do it to honor my wife, my late wife,” says Jim. You change the world by little random acts of kindness.”
“It never gets old. I will do this until I absolutely cannot do it anymore and whatever that brings. But if I have legs and arms, I will continue to do this every year,” says Jaime.
Stream the episode now, and stay tuned for more brand new episodes of Making Good, premiering Sundays on BYUtv.
