Something for Diane

Ever so slowly, the ice-covered lakes will give way to the open-water fishing season. And there it will be, in Gary Roach's boat.

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The pink fishing rod.

No, it's not for Roach, better known as Mr. Walleye. It's for his wife. And, ultimately, for his wife's sister. And for women suffering from breast cancer throughout the Brainerd lakes area.

Mrs. Walleye is making sure of that.

In 1998, Beverly Roach lost her sister, Diane, to breast cancer. Beverly remembers all too well her sister's constant chemotherapy treatments and wanted to do something for women who are going through the same thing.

Beverly Roach recently displayed a Mrs. Walleye fishing rod at the Roach home near Merrifield. Roach's sister, Diane (pictured to her left), died of breast cancer at age 50 in 1998. Brainerd Dispatch/ Brian S. Peterson

Roach and her four sisters and brother grew up in the Brainerd area, so she wanted to keep it local, too. And to help with everyday needs, such as money for gas or a babysitter for local women battling breast cancer.

So last spring, after several years of contemplating the idea, Roach - with the help of her husband and ProLine Fishing Inc. - marketed a line of Mrs. Walleye fishing rods, with $5 from the sale of each $60 rod going to the Pink Ribbon Cupboard, a nonprofit fund set up to provide emergency financial assistance for families undergoing breast cancer treatment.

Sales of the pink ProLine rods - designed especially for women by Gary Roach and based on the popular Mr. Walleye Series - raised $1,425 for the Pink Ribbon Cupboard. So in less than a year, with little more than word-of-mouth advertising, according to Beverly Roach, nearly 300 Mrs. Walleye rods were sold.

"I think we'll do a casting rod next time. Now we just have the spinning version," she said. "We wanted a good rod. There's a lot of cheap pink rods. And I wanted the right pink. It's a project very close to my heart and to my family."

Like the Mr. Walleye Series, the Mrs. Walleye rods are available at Fleet Farm in Baxter, as well as Service Drug in Brainerd.

According to the Pink Ribbon Cupboard, financial assistance will be for non-medical needs, such as gas vouchers for travel expenses, mortgage/rent payments, groceries, telephone and other utility bills, etc., for women in Aitkin, Crow Wing and Cass counties. All funds raised or donated to the Pink Ribbon Cupboard assist families in need as a result of breast cancer treatments.

"We're going to keep doing the same thing. Maybe more advertising," Roach said. "I just want it to keep going for what it's going for. That's what I wanted. It would be nice to have a pink reel. And we've talked about (pink ice fishing rods). It would be great for the kids. When Gary did the prototypes of the light blue ones (they also considered lavender before settling on pink), we gave one to her (Diane's) son's little boy. And they just had a little girl and we gave her a pink one."

Roach occasionally fishes with her husband and says she's caught some nice fish with her pink Mrs. Walleye rod.

"If there's not one in the boat, I'll be in trouble," Gary Roach said matter-of-factly.

Mrs. Walleye by Beverly Roach is a line of fishing rods being sold to help Brainerd area women battling breast cancer. Brainerd Dispatch/ Brian S. Peterson

"She liked to fish," Beverly Roach said of her sister. "We'd go up to the Winnie (Lake Winnibigoshish) cabin and Ron Hunter at Judd's would take us out. She was pretty sick by then. We probably went two or three times. And our parents had a cabin on Pelican. But she never did get to fish with Gary."

Diane also started what would become a family tradition - sisters' weekends, which included a girls' weekend during the opening of the Minnesota deer hunting season and numerous trips to Las Vegas.

"When Diane first started our sisters' weekend, we had all kind of drifted apart, busy with life and raising our kids," Roach said. "She got us back together and doing trips and things. And we are so close now and it is all because of what she started. That will last for the rest of our lives, and we have her to thank.

"She loved it all."

Anyone wishing to donate to the Pink Ribbon Cupboard may call 829-6205. For more information on Mrs. Walleye rods, go to www.prolinefishing.net.

BRIAN S. PETERSON may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864.