WAKULLA COUNTY, FL — A Wakulla County family turned grief into giving, creating an annual fishing tournament that raises thousands of dollars each year for local youth programs and scholarships.
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The Gage Pitman Memorial Rockin' Reds Fishing Tournament is how one family transformed heartbreak into a community celebration. Gage Pitman was 22 years old when he was killed in 2018. His family honored his love of fishing and the outdoors by founding a tournament in his name that continues to grow each year.
"The whole reason we're doing this tournament, you know, is a memorial, to take the heartache that we have this time of the year, and sort of put it into good times, family times and from that be able to help the youth," Page Pitman said.
The tournament raises $15,000 to $20,000 a year, which goes back into the community to support Wakulla County youth. Funds have supported initiatives including the Kids Rodeo Fishing Tournament, Sleep in Heavenly Peace bed builds, scholarships, and school programs. One year, the tournament even sponsored jackets for the Wakulla High School welding team as they headed to a competition.
Tournament Director Chris Russell said that moment captured what the event is all about.
"When you look at those high school kids going to that welding competition, and you're thinking about a young man whose life was taken too soon, but there's another young man and woman going to compete, and on that they're carrying that Rockin' Reds brand out there, and that legacy is going on. It's great," Russell said.
Last year, nearly 100 boats participated between inshore and offshore divisions. Page Pitman said seeing that kind of turnout in his son's memory means everything.
"To be able to then use those funds to be able to fund scholarships to help other youth, you know, that may have been in the same situations that our son or others, you know, had gotten into, just to be able to see those funds help help the youth in the community, it's it's a big thing," Pitman said.
His wife, Dana Pitman, said the tournament has exceeded anything the family imagined when they started it.
"It's morphed into something far greater than we could have ever imagined six years ago when we first started," Dana Pitman said.
The Pitmans encourage everyone to come out, saying the event is first and foremost a family event.
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