The Mayfly Project: Making Fly Fishing Reel Fun for Foster Children

ARKANSAS— Motivated by the birth of his son, a Benton, Arkansas, man and his wife developed a unique idea for a program based on the life cycle of a mayfly that brings fly-fishing to foster children. Jess Westbrook and his wife Laura formed The Mayfly Project in 2015, one year after the birth of their son sparked the inspiration to help children in foster care in their surrounding neighborhoods in Arkansas. Four months after its launch, Idaho native Kaitlin Barnhart caught wind of the project and was intrigued to tie in her own efforts and work alongside the Westbrooks to expand TMP beyond Arkansas. This was the birth of the national program, which hit the streets of the United States in 2016 after the three partnered up. TMP’s name and a structure are modeled around the life cycle of a mayfly, a fly often used as bait in fly-fishing. The first stage is the egg stage which resembles the introduction to fly-fishing, the fly rod, and TMF project mentors. Stage two is the nymph stage. The nymph stage is when insects undergo partial metamorphosis, and for TMP, it’s when the children learn casting, knot tying, catch and release, and it’s time to start...