Thank you for being a part of our Women of Fisheries community and participating in the FOURTH annual fisHER Adventure Classic this month! Without you, we would not be able to grow and expand our services for all women in fisheries.

The fisHER Adventure Classic is our annual fundraising event to help support our initiatives such as future scholarships, awards, mentoring support, and planning for annual meetings. This fourth annual virtual event funds the Women of Fisheries Gives Back Award for early career professionals.

This year, the event took place virtually from October 1-15, 2023, and we encouraged registrants to participate in an outdoor adventure of their choosing and share their stories with us. In all, we had 13 participants checking in from Oregon to Florida and all together we raised approximately $160. 

The fisHER Adventure Classic also included a contest for Most Impressive Adventure, Most Interesting Location, and Best Adventure Story, with winners having the option to choose from personalized #fisHERAdventureClassic race swag. Thank you to everyone who submitted stories and shared your adventures with us on social media. We can’t wait for next year’s event to share even more adventures with all of you!

Below, we present our 2023 story winners and their winning entries. Congratulations Lynn, Chelsey, and Darlene! 

Most (Un)Impressive Adventure – Lynn Mattes

How about an attempt at most impressive adventure? Went for a walk at Yaquina Bay State park in Newport, OR to watch the annular eclipse. However mother nature was not cooperative, we had thick clouds that morning. Couldn’t even see the sun. Did notice the temperature drop a little bit around the time of annularity and the clouds got a little bit darker. So it was a bust, but got out for a Saturday morning walk.

Most Interesting Location – Chelsey Crandall

I was lucky enough to get to head to northern Germany for a super cool integrative recreational fisheries science workshop, which meant I got to participate in the Classic from Europe this year! Spent a lovely Saturday with friends on a 5+ mile hike around Hamburg’s Aussen-Alster lake. The weather switched quickly back and forth between sunny skies and hail/rain, which sure made for an adventure! 

Best Adventure Story – Darlene Velez

Our plan for #fisHERAdventureClassic was a fun family canoe trip (1st paddling trip for our 5yr old), but life happened and schedules changed and we ended up in Valdosta, GA on a Wild Adventure that included alligators, tigers, petting zoo, a safari, fun rides and some river rapids down a “sink hole” that soaked us. This may not have been a traditional fisHER Adventure but we sure had fun! 3 hour round trip drive (99 miles), 5 hours of adventuring, 10k steps (~4 miles) hiking through the park, and 3 happy but tired people at the end of the day. Don’t worry that paddling trip got rescheduled for next week.