Thanks to quick work on the part of Advantage Pool, a pool dealer located along Bradford Highway in Lake City and San Juan Pools, a fiberglass pool and spa manufacturer based in Lakeland, Florida, more than 400 children enjoyed the program which the Lake City Wal Mart store has been sponsoring for the past four years. The program gives underprivileged and handicapped children an opportunity to enjoy a day of fishing.

The fishing derby appeared to be doomed when knife wielding vandals inflicted a 20-inch gash in a four-foot-high canvass pool supplied by Advantage Pool less than 24 hours before the scheduled event. Fortunately, the pool had not yet been stocked with fish when the cut caused it to lose all of its water. The vandalism rendered the $3,000 pool totally useless.

Immediately after being advised of the vandalism, Ray Lussier, owner of Advantage Pool, contacted Kirk Sullivan, owner of San Juan Pools in Lakeland and asked for assistance. Sullivan responded by putting a 20-foot-long fiberglass pool on a flatbed truck which transported it to the Wal Mart store which is 300 miles from Lakeland. Upon its arrival in the Wal-Mart parking lot, the pool was filled with water, chemically balanced and stocked with 500 pounds of catfish and 200 pounds of brim by the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.