Fishing event honoring Fletcher Merkel brings hundreds of kids together, raises funds for Annunciation scholarship
On the Lake Harriet shoreline in Minneapolis Saturday evening, dozens of children picked up a fishing rod for the first time.
It's a skill that 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel taught his own friends. It made for the perfect premise for a new annual event, Fishing For Fletcher Merkel, that's designed to bring people together and help further education at Annunciation Catholic School.
Fletcher Merkel lost his life there last August in a shooting that also claimed the life of 10-year-old Harper Moyski. Dozens of others, primarily children, were injured.
It's a tragedy that Mollie and Jesse Merkel will not allow to define their son, a boy who adored nature and making friends. That kind of shared joy was on full display on Saturday as kids learned to fish; of the 250 registered children, about 150 of them had never done it before, according to organizers.
"He [Fletcher] included all the kids in his class. He never liked for anyone to be sitting out or not feel like they were part of the community," Mollie Merkel said, "I think he's watching us and is joyful that his people, his community are here."
Off the water, children played in a bounce house and ran across the grass as adults entered a silent auction, raising more than $42,000 as of Saturday evening. Organizers said that proceeds will go to the Fletcher Merkel Memorial Endowment Fund through the Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota. His parents say they now have enough to give two children a full-ride through 8th grade at the school.
"We're just doing our best to combat what happened to us with joy and kindness. And set an example to prove that good can overcome evil," Jesse Merkel said.
The couple said they were "overwhelmed" by the support from fellow Annunciation families as well as total strangers from across Minnesota.
They said that some days are much harder than others. The end of the school year proved particularly difficult, they said, as they see how other children have grown over the course of the school year.
"How tall would Fletcher be? How many new pairs of shoes would I have had to buy him this year? What sports, like what would he be doing right now?" Mollie Merkel pondered.
They're painful questions that they'll never have answers to, but they have a clear answer when it comes to the kind of impact Fletcher Merkel had on his classmates and his community. Smiles, laughter and live music punctuated the inaugural Fishing for Fletcher event.
It was months in the making. Lance Kramer, a father at Annunciation who lives near the Merkels, said that he began thinking about a fishing event to honor Fletcher Merkel within weeks of the shooting.
"What kept running through my mind was that she [Mollie Merkel] said 'I don't want people to forget Fletcher. I don't want them to remember him for what happened, I want them to remember him for who he was,'" Kramer said. "He was a little 8-year-old boy that just lived life to it's fullest. He tore through sneakers in like a week or two. He loved sports, he loved people."
That shared love brought in so many volunteers that at a certain point, Kramer and other organizers needed to kindly turn people away.
Fishing for Fletcher brought in familiar faces from across town, including cheerleaders with the Minnesota Vikings.
For the Merkels, they hope to keep bringing new faces to Annunciation through their fundraising efforts. It's the kind of welcoming spirit that they say Fletcher Merkel extended to others just about everyday.
