Back Story: A dog’s best friend
It’s been said that dogs are the only creatures that get to see God without having to die first. That’s because, to a dog, its owner is God: good, kind, all-knowing entertaining, perfect – irrespective of the occasional baths and unpleasant visits to the veterinarian.
Dudley felt that way about Mark Frickman. Dudley was a collie that got to spend a lot of time in Frickman’s bass boat. When Frickman went fishing for the heck of it – and not in an FLW tournament – you might spot Dudley sitting on the casting deck, checking out the surroundings or watching his master fish. In Dudley’s eyes, his master could do no wrong. And as happens when a person and a dog click, Frickman felt pretty much the same toward Dudley.
If you understand how things works between a dog and his best friend, you won’t have any problem understanding why Frickman is doing what he’s doing this year. To memorialize his pal, who died a couple of years ago of natural causes, Frickman has pledged to donate 25 percent of any tournament winnings this year to Orphans of the Storm, an Illinois-based animal rescue shelter.
“I have a very strong affection for all animals anyway, and because the Lord has blessed me in my various businesses, I’m able to help them as well as to donate to various causes that directly benefit people,” says Frickman, of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Frickman will fish as a boater in the EverStart Northern Division in 2012, and his truck and boat have been wrapped by Extreme Graffix of Grand Rapids with the Orphans of the Storm logos and the message, “We Fish for the Animals.”
Frickman isn’t a one-man show. He’s sponsoring three other anglers this year, including Hoosiers Roger Hensley and Chad Dunham, one-half of the Purdue University team that won a National Guard FLW Central Conference tournament on Bull Shoals in 2010, and Michigan fisherman Antoni Bicy. Like Frickman, the trio also will be wearing jerseys proclaiming Orphans of the Storm affiliation. Their first tournament is on Kerr Lake in June.
“I got involved with Orphans of the Storm in 1998 when I lived in Illinois,” says Frickman, who owns a trucking company and is a partner in a couple of other local companies. “One day, just for the heck of it, I decided I needed a buddy so I went to the shelter. I saw a lot of dogs, but you know how it is. Dudley was so friendly and when we made eye contact I said to myself `you’re going home with me.’ He was my fishing pal for 121/2 years and traveled with me all over the country.”
Orphans of the Storm (www.orphansofthestorm.org) is a non-euthanasia shelter founded in Deerfield, Ill., in 1928 by Irene Castle, a famous Depression-era dancer. Last year, Frickman donated $1,000 from his overall tournament winnings to the shelter; this year, his goal is to raise $10,000 for the cause.
“Saving animals is a good thing in itself, but there’s more to it than that,” says Frickman. “Every dog or cat we save is a potential friend to somebody, a companion who will keep somebody from getting lonely, or help them get through the rough spots in life.”
Frickman knows whereof he speaks. And in case you’re wondering, he found other friends after Dudley’s passing. Chloe and Tiffany are Frickman’s new buds. They’re collies, too, and they came from Orphans of the Storm.