- March 26, 2025
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A local fishing tournament and charity auction April 5-6 is raising money for the Tidewell Foundation that will help terminally ill patients in honor of a young man whose life was cut short by cancer.
The seventh annual Chad Day Memorial Fishing Tournament is a catch-and-release tournament and charity event, headquartered at Tarpon Bay Grill & Tiki Bar, 7150 N. Tamiami Trail. After a captains' meeting 3 p.m. April 5, the teams are released to fish from that point on, with the final photo needing to be submitted by 2 p.m. April 6. Tarpon Bay will host fundraising events for the tournament from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 5 and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 6.
For more information on the event, go to ChadDay.ProFishingTournaments.com.
For Chad’s mother, Joann Day, it’s a way to celebrate her son’s life and passion for fishing.
“I just want to keep his memory alive,” she said. “I thought, you know, he loved to fish. And I just went all around trying to find a place to hold the event because I was just like, I've got to do something.”
Chad Day was, his friends say, the life of the party. “He was a very goofy, silly kid,” his mother said.
Joann’s husband, Alan Dormeyer, remembered Chad’s skill on the water.
“Chad was one of these guys that, if you went out on a boat, he's reeling in all these fish and everybody else is just kind of sitting there,” Alan Dormeyer said.
“That's one thing all his friends told me, is that he could catch (fish)," Alan Dormeyer said. "He had the magic hand. And I think his spirit was in the water with him."
At 23, his life was taking shape. Since becoming a certified welder at Manatee Technical Institute while still in high school, he had a job, a girlfriend and a passion for fishing.
“He had a big heart. Every chance he got, he was on the water fishing,” his mother said.
One day in 2014, Chad drove to a pond to put a line in the water. While getting out of his truck, his arm involuntarily went into the air and he fell to the ground.
“He had a seizure,” Joann Day said.
Passersby saw Chad fall and they called for an ambulance.
“He called me in the ambulance,” she said. “I was at work, and his voice was all shaking. He said he was on his way to hospital. He didn't know what happened.”
At Manatee Memorial Hospital, a CT scan of Chad’s brain revealed frightening news.
“That’s when they found the tumor,” his mom said.
Doctors at Moffitt Cancer Center performed a biopsy.
“At first they thought it was a different type of cancer. But when Moffitt did the surgery to remove as much as they could, they found out that it was a glioblastoma,” hie mother said. Glioblastoma is an aggressive cancer that grows quickly and destroys healthy tissue.
According to the American Brain Tumor Association, the five-year survival rate for someone Chad’s age is only 27%.
The constant trips to Tampa for treatment began to take its toll on Chad, she said.
“Even the ride up there was getting a little rough on him,” his mother said.
A friend suggested contacting Tidewell Hospice, which soon took over his home care, administering medications and providing a wheelchair and bed.
Chad soon became bedridden.
“I couldn't deal with it. I needed a nurse around the clock,” his mother said.
It was time for Chad to enter hospice care.
“So he had a little kitten," she said. "We took the kitten with us. We went to the Tidewell facility on 26th Street in Bradenton. Everybody was so nice. I slept there. They wanted to make sure I was comfortable.
“We were there for two weeks before he passed,” on May 16, 2015.
All of the money raised from the tournament goes to The Tidewell Foundation, which funds Tidewell’s services.
Tidewell cares for patients with a broad range of diagnoses, including heart and lung disease, cancer, AIDS, renal failure, ALS and end-stage Alzheimer’s in Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and DeSoto counties.
Tidewell Hospice serves anyone, regardless of their ability to pay.
The foundation raises millions of dollars each year, but The Chad Day Fishing Tournament is something special, said Megan Wenger, senior philanthropy advisor at the foundation.
“The fishing tournament is definitely unique," she said. “We have families that donate to the foundation after a loved one has been in hospice, but I don’t know of anyone who works as hard as Joann every year to raise money.”
The entry fee is $320 per boat for up to four anglers. There is an $80 fee for each additional angler, up to a maximum of 6 anglers per team.
Participants will be trying to land fish such as snook, redfish and trout.
First-, second- and third-place prizes are $1,000, $700, and $400.
Joann Day starts planning the tournament in November.
“I start then, and then in January, I hit the ground running, going around asking for donations,” she said.
Since the tournament started, Day has raised more than $78,000 for Tidewell, and she hopes to break the $100,000 mark this year.
“Last year I raised $25,500, so if I do the same this year, I should be right around the $100,000 mark.”
She would like to see more teams enter.
“I average about 15 teams," she said. "I'm hoping we get at least 20, if not a little bit more.”
Corporate sponsorships are also available at the $1,500, $1,000 and $500 levels.
At the event at the Tarpon Bay Grill & Tiki Bar, there will also be raffles for gift baskets, silent auctions, a 50/50 drawing and live music by the pool.
“It's around $10,000 to $12,000 in total prize money with all the baskets and all the donations,” Day said.
All teams registered for the fishing tournament will receive a captain’s bucket that includes a shirt, meal and drink tickets and more.
Additional shirts for anglers are available for purchase when registering for the tournament and on sale at the Tiki bar. A package of Bridgford Beef Jerky ($5 value) is included with every shirt.
