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Over the years I have had many friends and acquaintances that have had diabetes. I have had students in our school that have had to routinely check their “levels” to insure their blood sugar and insulin levels were at the right amount in order to prevent a Hyperglycemic event. We all know people who have to do this on a daily basis and we feel for them and the disruption it has on their daily lives. But we know the alternative is much worse. “Hyperglycemic Unawareness”-not checking and monitoring blood sugar levels in someone who is diabetic- could have disastrous even fatal results.

Now consider the difficulty when the person with the diabetic condition is a young child. The adults and high school students I have experience with, that have had diabetes and have had to go through these routines of checking levels and taking insulin shots. They have all experienced times that they may have “forgotten” to check their levels, maybe they ate something that they were not aware of how much sugar it contained, even different daily amounts of exertion can cause a raise or fall of sugar in a diabetics’ blood creating a dangerous hyperglycemic event. Having a toddler or a kindergarten age child with this condition must be extremely exhausting and nerve racking for the parents and family involved in this child’s life.

As is the case so many times, nature has a solution. We all know that service dogs have been trained to lead the blind, provide companionship for the elderly and even provide emotional support for people with disabilities. It has also been shown that dogs can be trained to alert their owners when they sense a change in their human companions’ blood levels and can do so at very early stages of a hyperglycemic event. As you can imagine, it isn’t cheap to train a service dog to reliably possess these skills. However, think of the peace of mind the parents of a young child with Juvenile Diabetes would have knowing their kid’s blood levels were constantly being monitored by the child’s best friend and constant companion.

Mady’s Way is a non-profit organization whose mission it is to provide diabetic alert dogs to families with diabetic children. It is an expensive proposition to train a service dog to respond to a hyperglycemic event. But many national insurance companies now recognize the service as a legitimate way to monitor insulin levels in diabetic individuals. If you ever want to donate money to a cause that is worthwhile and will put a smile on your face, just think of the smiles on the faces of the parents and the young child who meets their diabetic alert dog for the first time knowing that this gentle friend is also capable and ready anytime day or night to alert the family if the child’s blood levels change probably before anyone else is even aware there may be a problem.

I’ve been working this month to create awareness of Mady’s Way and its mission. We have been doing several fundraisers to bring money in to the organization to help with that mission and to try to be a part of that effort to match a service dog with a young child.

Throughout the month of March you can help this cause without spending a dime….

                Go to Mark Fisher Outdoors on Facebook and “Like” that Facebook page

                Share this story and get others to do the same

                I will donate $1.00 for every new “like” the page receives during the month of March and I encourage you to go to WWW.Madysway.org to get more information.

Former FLW Co-Angler, Mark Fisher from Wauconda, Illinois has announced his move to the front deck during the 2017 FLW Tour season. In a press release sent out earlier this week, he explained his campaign will be sponsored by three equally represented companies.

EZ Kut Products is the maker of the highly popular ratcheting pruners and loppers used by thousands of hunters, horseman and property owners. Featuring carbon steel blades and a lifetime guarantee, EZ Kut Products makes quick work of trimming and pruning tree stands, shooting lanes, riding trails and your front yard.

Takedown Eventures is a company that provides a unique alternative for corporate outings. Instead of sky boxes and golf outings, now corporations, small businesses, clubs and schools can call on Takedown Eventures to provide a group outing that combines team building and adventure with activities such as archery, crossbows, spears and sporting clays combined with wild game meals prepared by a renowned chef.

Two J’s Industries Inc. is a commercial industrial painting firm based in the Chicago area that has been coating projects for over 40 years. Two J’s Industries does coating projects all over the country and is capable of handling any size project including ceilings, walls, floors and exterior painting.

“We are very pleased to be supporting Mark in his move to be fishing professionally. He is an avid outdoors-man, horseman, teacher and businessman making him a very good spokesman for our products as well as being a personable, hard working representative of our company” said Jerry Milos, owner of EZ Kut Products.

“I am so proud and fortunate to have the support of these three companies. Each of them fill unique niches within their industries and they all believe that quality, hard work and great service are fundamental to their success” said Fisher.

Working in the field of education has a lot of benefits. One of them is getting the same holidays you used to get when you were a kid in school. So as the holidays were approaching last month, those of us at our school that were paid to be there were getting just as giddy and excited as the students. We even took to counting the number of days until break arrived.

As the school had been looking a little “rundown” and “tired” looking (these are the words some concerned parents and visitors had used) I planned ahead and called Dave Henneman, the owner of TWO JS INDUSTRIES, to see if we could schedule his crew to come out and paint the interior of the school during the time we would be on break. I thought I was being pragmatic, as getting a project done of this magnitude could only be done while our building was empty. Little did I know, landlords require things like advanced written notice, multiple bids, lien waivers and it seemed like a mountain of other red tape type obstacles that seemed to be getting in the way of what I thought was a brilliant plan! That’s when Dave went to work on my behalf. I wrote an email requesting the work be done, Dave submitted the bid, which was accepted within a few days and had the necessary lien waivers sent to their office same day.

More importantly, we left for break without worry. The very next day (a Saturday, Christmas eve) Dave’s team was at the school prepping walls and moving furniture. I got daily updates as to how the job was going from the project foreman, Brandon Henneman, and today I walked back into the building at 8:00 am (30 minutes before the students arrive) and the school was painted and the offices and classrooms were put back in order ready to start class!

Let me clarify here. TWO JS didn’t just paint our walls. They repaired damaged gym and classroom walls, detailed the trim in our weight room, gym and main room, they repainted the gym floor and the auto shop floor and painted over 10,000 square feet of interior space, all while my staff and students enjoyed our holiday break! It was a brilliant plan!

Here’s something else you may not realize. I happen to know that while all of this was going on at our school in Wheeling, Illinois, TWO JS had another project they were completing for United Airlines at O’Hare field painting their gigantic hangers that house the airliners. TWO JS INDUSTRIES is truly a quality oriented, family owned business that has been in business for over forty years. They are built on a foundation of doing quality work, providing courteous, knowledgeable service at a fair price. And although they are headquartered in Elk Grove, Illinois, they take on projects all across the United States. 

If you have any coating projects, large or small, interior or exterior, please give Dave Henneman a call at (847) 652-6970. Let TWO JS INDUSTRIES make your next brilliant plan a reality!

I had the opportunity this week to join other Ranger Pro Staff and dealers in Flippin Arkansas, the home of Ranger Boats and tour the facilities where Ranger boats are built… One Legend at a Time. Now I will tell you that this wasn’t my first time touring the plant. But the last time I was there, they had not opened the second, separate aluminum boat facility. With the popularity of aluminum boats, the lower price point for those just getting into the bass boat market and let’s face it, the fact that last years’ Forrest Wood Cup Champion, John Cox, did so out of an aluminum bass boat, I was very interested to see how Ranger put their boats together.

Just like the first time I visited Ranger Boats, I was extremely impressed with the efficiency, the care and the attention to detail that goes into building each boat that crosses the assembly line at the plant that houses well over 200 employees just in the operation that focuses on the building and preparation of each aluminum boat that Ranger Boats builds.

Seeing each boat as it starts from being just rolled aluminum that is shaped and welded into the hull and deck that will soon become a finished and well-constructed unit was impressive. The timing of how ancillary parts are built alongside main body construction so as to minimize storage issues while boats are in the building process was an example of the state of the art efficiency this plant operates under. And then there was the familiar Ranger pultruted fiberglass reinforcement with every available cavity filled with closed cell foam level flotation which means that this aluminum boat won’t have the traditional aluminum boat characteristic of heaving downward as you move from center to forward farther toward the bow of the boat. These boats are clearly built with the Ranger stamp of excellence through and though. The same flotation foam that provides for the superior stability attributes in the Ranger also give it a solid quiet hull not found in other aluminum boats.

Once the hull, deck and reinforcements are constructed it’s time for adding Rangers’ infamous top of the line added features such as the premium marine grade upholstery and carpet as well as recessed trolling motor foot pedals, integrated cup and tool holders and custom built wiring harnesses built in house that are hand fit for each boat to ensure proper connections and tailor made fit. Another feature that adds to the sleek look and construction of this rig is the fiberglass console which makes getting behind the wheel of this bad boy even easier and more enjoyable.

Each boat can be rigged with the owners’ choice of motor options. Obviously, one of the new Evinrude outboards with their just announced 10 year warranty would be the smart choice. The Minn Kota trolling motor is standard on each model.

Models range from the RT series which even includes the 198p that features a pad bottom hull, a center console RB model and the VS line of Deep V hull boats. There is also a line of Hunting and Fishing boats available for the camo inclined among us. One thing to remember; when that new aluminum Ranger Boat comes out of the testing tank and goes from the lift to its’ new trailer, it’s still being set on the finest trailer ever made. The same structural steel channel beam construction, the exclusive COOL Hub system and Road Armor finish is the same trailer that the big boys ride on thousands of miles each year and another reason Ranger Boats continue to have the highest resale value of any other used boat on the market.

Touring the Ranger plant for a second time this year was far from routine.  In fact, being able to witness the construction process of the both the aluminum boat facility and revisit the plant that is currently building my boat that will hopefully be called my workplace for the upcoming FLW Tour gave me great pride to know I am supported by a company that goes to such great lengths to produce a quality product each and every time a boat leaves those outer doors.

Still Building Legends….One at a Time.