INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana man has started a program to push local kids to expand their horizons, and he's he's preparing to take his message across the country.
When he was only 3 years old, Eddie Gill picked up his first fishing pole, thanks to his grandpa Gary Vipperman. Since then, the now-21-year-old has barely been without one.
“It brings so much joy to my life and there’s such a sense of peace when I’m out there on a pond, on a lake, on a boat, on the water,” said Gill.
Gill, a Carmel High School grad, is determined other kids should get the same chance to know that same feeling.
“One of the biggest things is just to inspire the next generation,” he said.
That’s why Gill, a Grace College senior, is about to head out on the boating and fishing adventure of a lifetime, travelling 800 miles aboard a boat in 10 days, stopping at nine different marinas along the way, to teach kids about fishing and the outdoors.
“We’ll start on the Ohio River and by the end of it, we’ll be in the Gulf of Mexico,” Gill said.
The trip starts next Tuesday in Evansville.
“The entire idea kind of started this past summer, when there was so much civil unrest, so much tension and I was trying to think of way where I could make a difference,” he said.
Gill came up with “Journey for a Cause.” The cause is all about raising awareness about the lack of diversity in outdoor sports.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about bringing people together, and the more we can be united and together as one, the better,” Gill said.
Joining him on his journey will be one of Gill’s childhood fishing buddies, along with members of his family, including the same grandpa who heled fuel Gill’s passion for the outdoors almost 20 years ago.
“It’ll be a great life experience and definitely something I remember and learn from the rest of my life,” Gill said.
But it’s the kids Gill will meet along the way who he hopes can also learn something.
“The outdoors, to walk outside, that’s free. That’s for everybody,” he said.