#TIPITFORWARD: Hurricane Florence Relief by North Carolina Backcountry Hunters & Anglers
#TIPITFORWARD is a person-to-person direct outreach platform seeking to aid North Carolina fishing and hunting guides with swift financial aid. To #TIPITFORWARD, simply send a check for one day’s tip (about 20 percent of the charter fee) to a hunting or fishing guide that’s provided you with an awesome trip in the past or one you know of through friends and family. You should have their contact info, but if you don't Google does. This is simple, quick, straightforward, and desperately needed. Then, if convenient, share a photo of your day as a post to @ncbha on Instagram or to the group North Carolina Backcountry Hunters & Anglers on Facebook and hashtag the post as #tipitforward #ncguides #ncbha #ncbackcountry #ncbackwaters #northcarolina #hurricaneflorence. This isn’t necessary, but will help spread the word and send the #TIPITFORWARD campaign viral. The guides can use it for roofing nails, generator gas, diapers for their children, or any other pressing need.
The devastation of Hurricane Florence to the eastern North Carolina Coastal Plain needs little detailed description to anyone who has been watching the news. Hundreds, and likely thousands, of hunting and fishing guides have lost homes, boats, docks, and months’ and months’ worth of future income. Water access in a third of the state is a shambles. It is an equal—opportunity disaster for North Carolina hunting and fishing guides. The guy who runs speckled trout trips in the Outer Banks marshes from a 20-foot johnboat, and the captains and mates of 50-foot Gulf Stream sportfishermen are equally affected. The epic massive flooding that has yet to hit its peak is washing human sewage, the raw bodies and waste of most of the state’s 12 million hogs, plus untold vehicles, homes, trash, you name it, into the beloved Southern Serengeti of the North Carolina Coastal Plain and its 2 million acres of public estuarine waters.
This is the description as of today, and this will be the description a month and two and three months from now, a time when hunting and fishing guides make much, and in many cases, most of their annual income.
TIP IT FORWARD is a social media campaign spearheaded by the North Carolina Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers in cooperation with partners in the media, retail, and conservation space. NC BHA provides a platform of social media engagement to encourages all hunters and anglers to TIP IT FORWARD—send one day’s standard tip to a hunting or fishing guide that they have used in the past or just know of through other relationships. This is a direct, one-time action that can be done in 60 seconds from one’s home or office. No need to stand in line at the Home Depot trying to buy tarps and batteries. Send funds directly to the people who need it now, as a support of solidarity for our guiding culture.
Please note: This is not a BHA membership or fund-raising drive. No funds will pass through BHA. Anyone who engages with this program will not be solicited in the future for membership or fund-raising by BHA, NC BHA, or through the TIP IT FORWARD platform. We do, however, want this campaign to be as successful as possible and reach as far and wide as it can. Participation encourages participation and we will share those statistics while taking care to keep anyone’s name and information out of that reporting that prefers anonymity.
Thank you in advance for your support in helping our NC hunting and fishing guides weather the storm. #TIPITFORWARD.
NC offshore fishing guide and dedicated BHA member, Bert Sowell, with an amazing bluefin tuna.