As Franklin Brea, 8, talked about the trout he landed at the 70th Annual Special Needs Fishing Derby, his classmate from Panther Valley Elementary School weighed in.

“I caught three fish with a worm,” Nah’zir Harris, 7, announced — the excitement audible in her voice and visible in her wide smile.

And that’s what the derby, held by the Germantown Grove Club and the Jim Thorpe American Legion Post 304, is all about.

“The main focus is the kids — making them smile, making them laugh, and helping them get outdoors to have a fun day,” explained Dave “Stick” Remmel, a member of the Germantown Grove Club.

Thursday’s event at the Germantown Grove in Jim Thorpe brought 150 special needs students from across Carbon County to throw a line into the chilly waters of Silkmill Run. Another 150 were expected this morning — weather permitting — as the two-day event continued.

For Brea and Harris, both students in Jennifer Schlegal’s Life Skills Class at Panther Valley, it was the first time they ever held a rod.

Volunteers from the sponsoring organizations, as well as from the community and area high schools, were on hand from the time the students — many of them new to fishing — arrived.

They helped with rod selection, helped them choose bait, and guided their arms as they cast.

Volunteers even helped fillet the fish, served lunch and snacks, painted faces and distributed balloon “animals.”

“If it wasn’t for the volunteers, you couldn’t do it. This marks 70 years of this program,” Remmel said.

The theme for 2025, he noted, is “Cast a Line, Make a Difference.”

At one point, the youths and volunteers were lined almost shoulder-to-shoulder casting, reeling and catching.

Once a fish was pulled in, it was put into a bag and taken to the fillet station. Volunteers cleaned the fish and removed skin and bones. The catches were placed in zippered bags.

“Some of the schools take the fish to their home economics classes and they fry them up, or they take them home and mom or dad fries them up,” Remmel saiDerby provided.

Pete McElmoyle, a club member, said the club and the American Legion hold fundraisers like soup sales and an upcoming chicken barbecue.

Funds raised, or collected through donations from the community and businesses, provide for food, bait, rods, tackle — and the trout.

“I think they put 60 fish in today and will do 60 tomorrow,” he said. “There are some palominos in there as well.”

McElmoyle said 13 county schools and the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit send special needs students. They’re paired with high school students and others.

“We have kids helping from Jim Thorpe and Panther Valley school districts,” McElmoyle said. “So kids come off the bus and they get attached to a peer.”

While student volunteers helped with the fishing, adult volunteers assisted in other capacities.

Jim Cottrell, of Albrightsville, made sure bait was available. He helped stock garden worms, meal worms or salmon eggs.

Cottrell and his son-in-law, Roger Meckes, saw an advertisement for the event and decided to help.

“It’s a super great event that they do for the kids,” said Meckes, a member of the Penn Forest Fire Department.

At one table, club volunteer Erin Shigo congratulated the youths who landed fish. She recorded their names, the date and the species of fish on a certificate from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

“It’s been very busy,” she said. Just about an hour into the derby, she had handed out about 50 “first fish” certificates.

Meanwhile, her father, Joe Shigo, who’s been helping with the derby for as long as she can remember, slid a sharp knife through the caught fish, preparing perfect fillets for the youths.

Some found that they enjoyed another type of fish — the cut out cookie kind. Irene Remmel, of Jim Thorpe, spent most of Wednesday baking 200 fish-shaped cookies, and packaged them into bags containing gummy worms.

The treats were served with lunches prepared by volunteers and eaten in the pavilion or on the grassy area surrounding the creek.

Even the Lehigh Valley Health Network made an appearance, flying its medical helicopter over the site as county Commissioners Wayne Nothstein and Mike Sofranko presented the club and the legion with citations.

Representatives from the Palmerton-based Whippin’ Waters were on hand, too. The local lure, bait and apparel company donates 10% of its profits to fishing events for youngsters.

The youths could have their faces painted, and grab art supplies or balloon animals.

Wyatt Moyer, a Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit student at L.B. Morris Elementary School, was joined by paraprofessional Brenda Barry and looked over a selection of frogs, snakes, dogs, lions and other balloon animals.

Moyer chose a fish.