A heartfelt story comes across your social media feed and you think to yourself, “I wish there was something I could do to help.”
Like it or not, social media is now a part of our lives. Thoughts put to text can ignite a conversation, long lost friends or relatives can reacquaint themselves, and stories can go viral. But there’s always that one story of a person or family going through hard times, and a feeling of compassion towards their story comes about. Such a story came across Ryan Hoover’s news feed.
Luke Guenst is just like any other three year old who likes to play and have fun. But, unlike other children his age, Luke has had to fight a battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Kenny Guenst carrying his son, Luke, at weigh in.
Within days of his diagnosis, Luke’s mother, Amy, gave birth to his baby sister, Layah Morgan Guenst. Shortly after his original diagnosis, Luke contracted an infection that would pose as a danger to not only himself, but his newborn sister as well. Due to the circumstances, Amy was unable to care for both Luke and Layah at the same time. Luke’s father, Kenny, took on the role of staying by Luke’s bedside full time during his stay at the hospital while Amy cared for baby Layah. This left the one income family in a financial bind due to Kenny, an angler himself, having to take leave from his job to care for his family.
The story hit a soft spot with Hoover, who posed the question, “What can I do to help?”
From that, the idea for the Luke Guenst Charity Bass Tournament was formed. The event took place at Camp Mack’s River Resort on September 26th, where 36 teams of anglers arrived to catch some fish while raising money for the Guenst family.
Longtime tournament partners, James Watkins and Wayne Yohn, topped the field with a 26.90-pound, five-bass limit. They anchored their bag with a 9.05-pound lunker to secure the $1,000.00 first place prize.
Eric Conant and Michael Foster lacked a big bite throughout the day. It was all they needed to go along with their solid 24.50-pound, five-bass limit. The team earned a second place finish worth $750.00.
Ken Lucas and Daniel Lanier earned $550.00 in their third place finish, weighing a 22.25-pound, five-bass bag.
Fourth place and $350.00 was awarded to Danney Hulett and Darcy Barnes for their 21.55-pound bag.
Levi and Roger Brown rounded out the top five with a 21.50-pound, five-bass limit. The 9.20-pound lunker anchoring their bag helped to earn the father-son team $250.00 for their finish.
Jesse Mizell’s 9.85-pound TrophyCatch earned the day’s Big Bass award worth $100.00.
Between donations, sponsorships, funds raised from the tournament raffle, and many teams placing within the top five donating back 100% of their winnings, the Luke Guenst Charity Bass Tournament was able to raise over $4,000.00 to help the Guenst family. That’s quite a feat, considering that Hoover had never met the Guenst family prior to seeing their story.
A heartfelt story comes across your social media feed and you think to yourself, “I wish there was something I could do to help.”
If you would like to learn more about Luke’s story, or would like to donate to the Guenst family, visit www.youcaring.com.
