All right, all you anglers out there.
Head out to High Rock Lake tomorrow to fish for Riley.
A benefit bass fishing tournament for Riley Brilliant will kick off bright and early in the morning ó OK, maybe just early ó with registration from 5-7:20 a.m. at Tamarac Marina. The tourney begins at 7:30 a.m.
Entry fee is $65, with an additional $10 going toward the “big fish prize.”
Whoever lands the biggest bass will receive a cash award.
The tournament is being organized by David Hiatt of Faith, a member of the Christian Bass Anglers in Rowan County.
Three-month-old Riley Brilliant, the son of Jason and Michelle Brilliant of Rockwell, is undergoing treatment at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis for a brain tumor.
Hiatt, 35, found out about Riley on Monday ó four days ago, mind you ó while he was eating lunch at A&L Mini Mart.
“The idea popped into my head and I got to working on it and it just exploded in an hour,” Hiatt says. “The Lord laid it on my heart to do it, and there ain’t no turning back.”
Hiatt wanted to do a fundraiser as quickly as possible so he settled on Saturday.
Things are falling into place.
The Fishers of Men, another Christian bass fishing group with a chapter in Rowan, has donated $500. Tamarac has donated food, cash and prizes. Hiatt, whose company, WVO 4 Diesel Fuel, makes biodiesel fuel, has given $300.
Before continuing his phone interview, Hiatt has to stop and cover up a squawking parrot.
“Night, night,” she says.
Hiatt and his wife also have two indoor dogs and 12 outdoor dogs.
He’s a man with a big heart ó who hopefully will raise a lot of money tomorrow.
“If everything keeps going the way it is right now, we hope to raise between $8,000 and $10,000.”
Hiatt has worked on getting food donated for a meal at the weigh-in, which takes place at 3:30 p.m. Meals will be served for a donation.
Prizes will be given for first, second and third place, as well as overall prize for the “big fish.”
Two-person teams will be allowed to catch six fish each, and the team with the heaviest bag of fish wins.
But of course, tomorrow’s big winner will be little man Riley, as his dad calls him.
“It really got to me that it was a 3-month-old baby boy,” says Hiatt, who has a daughter and two stepchildren. “I can only imagine what that family’s going through and what that baby’s going through. It really hurt me.”
He talked with another benefit organizer who told him he was “absolutely nuts” to think he could pull off a tournament in four days.
Well.
“It’s gonna happen,” Hiatt says firmly. “The Lord’s seeing to it that it’s gonna happen. That’s all there is to it.”
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For more information about Saturday’s tournament, visit www.christianbassanglers.org and click on special events, or call David Hiatt at 704-267-1294.