Once in a while, Key West provides its people with a reminder that this community rocks. Saturday was one such day.
Key West fishing captains can be a competitive, swaggering group. (I’m allowed to say that; I’m married to one.) Then a bunch of them go and donate their boats, time and fuel to take a special group of people on an unforgettable fishing trip for the annual Don Moore Grunt Tournament.
The light-hearted tournament for clients of MARC (Monroe Association for Remarkable Citizens), who are developmentally disabled adults, started back in 1996 when captains Nick Malinowsky, Joe Greene and Willy Smith ran their fishing charters out of Oceanside Marina (now Oceans Edge Resort) on Stock Island. At that time Don Moore was executive director of MARC and lived just past the marina.
The captains would regularly see Moore take some of the MARC clients out fishing in his own boat. They saw how excited the MARC clients were to have a day on the water and thought it would be fun to do something special for them. The MARC Grunt Release Tournament was born. When Moore died, the captains asked his wife Diana Flenard, who is now MARC executive director, if they could rename the tournament in his honor.
The tournament provides a rare opportunity for clients to fish with professional guides and compete against their peers. It also gives the clients an awareness of their saltwater surroundings, as many of them have never seen their island community from the water.
Trophies are awarded for the top three biggest grunts caught, as well as for the biggest edible fish, sportsmanship, hard luck story, prettiest fish and most unusual fish.
After a morning of fishing, the clients returned to Oceans Edge for a prepared lunch and fish stories.
“We certainly couldn’t do this without the amazing support and donations of our community partners, Mike Bender at Oceans Edge, the Klausing family and Sloppy Joe’s, FINZ, Pepe’s Café, Key West Marine Hardware, Harpoon Harry’s and the Halterman family,” Flenard said.
