Page 8 - Mid America Boating - August 2024 issue

It’s a Shore Thing

Cast It Forward offers a rare
AUGUST 2024 [ MID-AMERICA BOATING ] 8
chance for many to enjoy our

outdoors and Lake Erie

Vets, kids, disabled benefit from Art Panfil’s unique program

By D’Arcy Patrick Egan My father, despite being quite the sports-
Photos by D’Arcy Patrick Egan man, had never cast a lure in his life, and no
interest in fishing or the great outdoors.
Growing up on the Lake Erie shore- Art Panfil, of Richfield, Ohio,
line in the 1950s, fishing was an would have felt my angst. It is
avocation, but never a slam the reason he created Cast It
dunk. It was rare to find anyone Forward in 2021, and began
in my Old Brooklyn neighbor- taking disadvantaged kids,
hood who enjoyed catching fish, young Boy Scouts, military
and I’d never met anyone who veterans, disabled kids and
owned a boat. adults and senior citizens for
Despite being so young and so complimentary boat rides.
short I wasn’t allowed to ride the rides I met Panfil at his exhibit at the Cleve-
at Euclid Beach Park, the only way I could land Boat Show one winter day, and was
access small ponds or the Lake Erie piers taken aback by his mission. A fisherman
and break walls around Cleveland was to growing up, he had 30 years of boating
take a bus. With a spinning rod and tackle experience on Lake Erie. Now retired, he
box in hand, I was such a unique sight that a wanted to share those gifts with young and
Cleveland News photographer captured my old who were unaware of the magic of riding
image for a newspaper that went out of busi- the waves of Lake Erie.
ness a couple of years later. “Fishing can be just a part of the experi-
ence,” Panfil explained as we waited at the
dock at the Huron River Boat Access, where
Art Panfil nets another Lake Erie he’d launched his 23-foot Hewescraft Pro V
walleye caught during a Cast It fishing boat. “I want military veterans, senior
Forward excursion. citizens and kids who have never enjoyed a

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®
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Visit cedarpoint.com/marinas, email marinainfo@cedarpoint.com, or call 419.627.2334 for details.

Amenities vary by location. Cedar Fair Entertainment Company ® ©2023 Cedar Fair, L.P. CP24-112