Another site just had an an open letter thread, so now it's my turn

Below is a letter I sent off today to Rod Fleck the City Attorney / Planner for Forks regarding his actions at last night's Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction and our decision to pull our support for the event this year:

March 21, 2004
RE: Participation in QVSA
Rod Fleck
Forks City Attorney / Planner
rodf.forks@centurytel.net

Dear Rod,

My name is Bob Ball. I’ve lived and guided for salmon and steelhead in Forks for more than a decade. We’ve never had the opportunity to meet face-to-face, although we’ve had a lengthy phone discussion regarding the WDFW’s recent moratorium on the harvest of wild steelhead on the local rivers. You certainly seemed to know me and my support for a ban on the harvest of wild steelhead in Washington State.

I am writing to you and the other CC recipients of this letter on a rare sunny Sunday morning in Forks in the latter half of March. Both my fiancée (Corey Hoercher) and myself look forward to this March weekend and both take time off work to participate in the Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction (QVSA) as we have for a number of years.

The QVSA is a huge event in the Forks community. Now in its forty-first year, it raised over $70,000 last year for Forks High Seniors graduates pursuing a post-secondary education including college, technical training programs, and apprenticeships.

In the past, we have been ardent supporters of the annual auction. Despite the fact that we have neither children, nor any close friends with children that would benefit from our donations, we have purchased roughly $1000 of merchandise at each of the past three auctions. We have long felt that it is important to support local schools and causes whenever possible. We’ve engaged in heated bidding wars in previous auctions and in some instances, paid over 10 times the retail value of an item. That’s the spirit of what this auction is about! In addition, we’ve donated several guided trips that raised roughly $300 for each trip and our donation of smoked seafood and razor clams last year netted the auction roughly another $500.

However, on this particular Sunday morning, I find myself writing this letter rather than attending the auction as we had planned to do for some time. We have also decided to hold back our donation of several hundred prepared / packaged razor clams that we dug and paid to have cleaned /packaged specifically to donate to this year’s auction that surely would have raised many hundreds (perhaps over a thousand) of dollars for Forks High School seniors.

Why?

Your comments and actions as the live auctioneer on the evening of Saturday, March 20 while we attended the auction have forced us to make the hard decision to pull our financial support for this year’s auction.
Instead of a night / weekend of fun times and exorbitant spending to benefit the young people of the Forks community, you chose instead to turn the event into a show of political grandstanding. You should be ashamed of your actions and comments. We think that it not only set a poor example for the students, it will in the end, cost them dollars for post-secondary education.

It began with your comment while we were the high bidder for a carved wooden salmon in which you stated, “You can even take this one home,” with a scan of the audience to find us and make direct eye contact and followed by a derogatory little laugh.

Corey and I found this comment to be distasteful and inappropriate for mention in the setting of the auction. As strong as my feelings are for the release of wild steelhead in our streams, I have never once walked up to an angler out of the blue on the river or boat ramp and made comments as to their stance on the issue.

There is a time and place to “play politics”; in our eyes the river should not be one of those places. We also feel that the QVSA should also not be one of those places; however, you obviously see things differently.

We did our best to overlook your little barb directed our way; we certainly had no opportunity to make a rebuttal, nor would it have been the place for us to make one.

A few minutes later, another item came up for bid: smoked steelhead. As you announced the new item, you once again looked directly at us and said, “That’s all I’ll say about that.” Another barb directed our way. As if one snide comment wasn’t enough, you couldn’t help to include another.

Fortunately, your turn as auctioneer soon came to an end. Instead of listening and waiting for another comment on your part, Corey and I had a few moments in our seats to discuss your actions and comments that were directed as us. Our feeling was that the money we donate to the area’s young adults funded mostly by our guide service (operating with a strict policy catch-and-release of wild steelhead and lucrative for ourselves and the city’s businesses) was “tainted” or “less worthy” in your eyes. Thus a few minutes later, we decided to pay for the one item we had purchased and left; from that point forward we would no longer financially support the QVSA this year since you decided to turn it into a one-sided public forum and auction officials made no attempts to put an end to your “bash catch-and-release session”.

We think we should also point out that we are currently conducting a raffle for a guided fishing trip and a number of other prizes on our website. The setup of the raffle allows the winner to disperse the proceeds to a worthy cause of their choice – with several Forks-area causes suggested as recipients, and the QVSA Fund listed once listed as our number one suggestion.

Because of the events at the auction last night, we have removed the QVSA Fund from our listing of suggested recipients for this year.
Last year, following our suggestion of the family of Jill and Jess Henry as the recipients, the family received over $1200 of raffle proceeds to help pay for medical and travel expenses for the family while the twins battled leukemia. To date, we have nearly $1500 of tickets sold for this year’s raffle and there are several weeks left for ticket sales that may have gone to the QVSA Fund. We expect roughly $2000 to be raised and it remains to be seen where these dollars will go, but our recommendation to the winner is no longer the Scholarship Fund.

While we will still donate five or six trips a year to worthy causes and donate significant amounts of cash to similar causes, we would rather see this year’s raffle’s proceeds and our hard-earned dollars that we would have spent at the 2004 QVSA go to a worthy cause that will take the funds without prejudice and with an outlook for the future and not just for today.

At this time, we do plan on re-establishing our support for the QVSA in future years as we feel it is a integral part of the community’s future.

In the future, we hope that if you remain involved with the QVSA that you will forgo the political innuendos / attacks and allow the spirit of the auction to remain as intended: a weekend dedicated to the community’s support of the future of Forks High School seniors.

Respectfully,

Bob Ball
RLBALL@OLYPEN.COM


cc: TO A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE - City people, local papers, etc...