Embrace A Stream Challenge: Meramec River Telemetry Study

[Phil Lilley]

Trout Unlimited's Embrace A Stream (EAS) grants program has been a powerful resource helping local chapters bring TU’s mission to their home waters for more than four decades. At this year's 2017 Annual Meeting in Roanoke, TU supported 47 chapter-led projects from 22 states with more than $214,000 in grants.

At the annual meeting, Gateway Trout Unlimited was awarded a $1,000 grant to help fund the Meramec River Telemetry Study.

Now, thanks to a powerful commitment from Orvis, we're excited to tell you that all of these projects have chance to win an additional $50,000 in cash grants in the Embrace A stream Challenge – a special online contest running Nov. 6-12.

The Embrace A Stream Challenge is a fun, week-long online competition encouraging all of us to "give where you fish" and support local projects led by local TU members and volunteers like you. The premise is simple, TU and Orvis have each put up $25,000 and invited this year's EAS grant recipients to compete for those dollars.

For GTU to have a chance at a share of the $50,000 prize pool, we need your help.

From midnight on Nov. 6 through 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 12, consider making a donation of $10 or more to our project and spreading the word with your friends and family.

Here is the link to our project’s page: https://embraceastream.org/projects/gateway

BONUS: for all who donate, email your receipt to evan.muskopf@gatewaytu.org and you will receive a dollar for dollar credit towards our annual fundraising dinner in February (priced at $50 per ticket). For example, donate $10, get $10 off your ticket price. Donate $25 and get $25 off of your ticket and so on. We will credit you up to the cost of a table of 8, which is $350. Our featured presenter will be Missouri Department of Conservation Director Sara Parker Pauley and is going to be a great night.

100% of your donation made on our page go right back to the chapter to benefit the study.

Here’s the fun part… every $10 donation made can randomly unlock prizes up to $1,000. Every $25 donation can unlock prizes up to $1,500. So your $10 donation has the ability to turn into a $1,000 donation funded by the prize pool put up by TU and Orvis. With more than 55 prizes up for grabs, every donation – no matter the size – makes a difference and will help fund a project on a river that we all want to see thrive into the future.

Recap on how you can help:

1. Visit https://embraceastream.org/projects/gateway and make a donation. Remember to forward your receipt to evan.muskopf@gatewaytu.org for you dollar for dollar credit towards your GTU fundraising dinner ticket.

2. Share this event and/or the page above on your Facebook page with a message like ‘Help Gateway Trout Unlimited compete with 47 chapters nationwide for a $50K prize pool. We are raising funds for the Meramec River Brown Trout Telemetry Study and every donation makes a difference!'

3. Contact three people that are not involved with Trout Unlimited to see if they would like to help support the study and help us win the competition.

Keep an eye out for updates on this event page. We will keep you posted on how our Chapter is doing in the competition.

Thank you for your support. With your help, the Meramec River Telemetry Study will be fully funded by late February 2018 for a Fall 2018 launch!