to award grants for conservation projects
SPRINGFIELD, Missouri – 4/6/22 – As part of its mission to celebrate, promote and preserve the sport of bass fishing, the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame will award conservation grants to worthy organizations and efforts for the third consecutive year. Applications must be submitted to BFHOF Conservation Committee Chairman Gene Gilliland by May 15, 2022, for review by a panel of BFHOF Board Members.
“We are thrilled to be able to contribute in this way,” said Hall of Fame President John Mazurkiewicz. “We’ve really gained momentum in the past several years. Our induction banquet and intermittent auctions have proven to be wildly successful. That increasingly gives us the means to give back to the fishing community. Conservation and youth projects are key ways of doing that.”
In 2020, the Hall awarded grants to four organizations: The Clarks Hill Youth Fishing Team; the Illinois B.A.S.S. Nation; the Indiana Bass Federation and the Virginia Bass Federation.
Last year, the Hall again provided grants to four projects spearheaded by the following groups: The Southwest Iowa Fishing Team; the Spring Bassmasters and Southern Colorado Junior Bass Club; the Tri-County Bass Anglers of Indiana; and the Chattanooga Bass Association.
The grants totaled $15,000. This year, the Hall intends to match that total. “Our sport depends on these grassroots warriors to keep us going,” said Board member Gene Gilliland, who is also the B.A.S.S. Conservation Director as well as a 2021 inductee into the Hall. “While we recognize that we can’t reward every worthy project, we are increasingly able to help a few each year get completed.”
Gilliland and fellow Board member Casey Shedd of AFTCO will lead the BFHOF conservation grant selection process. Criteria for appropriate projects is outlined on the Hall of Fame’s website at: https://www.bassfishinghof.com/bass-fishing-hall-of-fame-grant-program. Completed applications can be sent to Gilliland at ggilliland@bassmaster.com, as can any questions.
The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame will hold its annual induction dinner on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, at the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Mo. There will also be a concurrent auction which will assist the Board in hosting the dinner and other recognition events each year, along with funding next year’s conservation grants and other worthy endeavors benefiting the sport of bass fishing. Generous donors from all walks of the fishing and outdoors industries have already donated numerous products and experiences, many of them one-of-a-kind items that cannot be purchased elsewhere at any price.
