Fishing guides, sport fishers and commercial fishers don't always see eye to eye, but when it comes to supporting a good cause, those groups showed this past weekend that what's most important is supporting the community that supports them.
Four of the area's most visible fishing groups ‹ the Kenai-Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, the Kenai River Professional Guides Association and the Kenai Wild salmon branding program ‹ got together in order to put on a benefit seafood feed for the residents of Heritage Place in Soldotna.
The second annual Return of the Salmon Celebration was originally the brainchild of Heritage Place director Dennis Murray and advisory committee member John Nelson. Nelson said Wednesday that he wanted to come up with a way to bring the fishing groups together while doing something nice for the residents of the Soldotna nursing home.
"Between Dennis and I, we kind of put it together," Nelson said.
In addition to the residents of Heritage Place, Nelson said Soldotna area seniors, Kenaitze Indian Tribe elders, Heritage Place staff and family members also got to feast on some of the finest seafood the area has to offer. He said the event was unique in that it is a way for the various groups to simply get together and do something positive.
"It's just nice to see everybody uniting around the resource for a common purpose," he said.
Fishing guide Ty Van Lier was one of the guides who helped with the cooking Sunday. He said it was great to be able to unite with the other groups for such a good cause.
"Everybody just wanted to give some time back to the seniors," he said.
With fresh salmon donated by Kenai Wild, scallops and clams from KRSA and halibut from a local fishing guide, Van Lier said nobody went away from the event hungry.
"When you've got good food like that, everybody gets stuffed," he said.
With the success of this year's event, Van Lier said it's a sure bet the seafood feast will return ‹ like the salmon it's named for ‹ again and again.
"We're looking forward to doing it again next year," he said.
