- January 4, 2025
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Deb Marcino said the reason she finds volunteering her time with Flagler Sportfishing Club’s kids4reel program so rewarding is because it’s all about the children.
“The kids are my soft spot,” she said. “It’s really [about] seeing these kids catch their first fish.”
The Flagler Sportfishing club’s kids4reel program works with teachers to take several kids out from school once a month to teach them about fishing and conservation. Flagler Sportfishing also helps sponsor the program at the schools, providing seed money, fishing rods and reels and each month, the experience of several Sportfishing adult club members to teach the kids about fishing, conservation and working with others.
Jeff Murphy, kids4reel founder, is the reason Marcino, already a member of the Flagler Sportfishing Club, got involved. But now, she said, she receives a lot of joy from helping with the children in kids4reel.
“I just like to help,” she said. “I like to give these kids something to look forward to.”
I just like to help. I like to give these kids something to look forward to.”
— DEB MARCINO, kid4reel volunteer and co-leader
A lot of the children who participate in the program don’t often get out of the house into nature, she said, many of them have never seen a whale or a manatee or dolphins. Not only does kids4reel provide those experiences, she said, but the kids also get a chance to make new friends and find camaraderie with each other.
“That’s really what I love,” Marcino said. “…It just lights them up.”
Murphy said Marcino is “an overall great person who is always helping others” and a “dedicated volunteer” across multiple community groups. She’s not only Flagler Sportfishing Club Treasurer, but she is the co-leader of Kids4Reel and the treasurer of the Country Club Harbor Homeowner’s Association.
For her part, Marcino said the success of kids4reel rests on the shoulders of the team — her part is mostly making sure everyone is taken care of and working well together.
Her friend and fellow Flagler Sportfishing Club member Quinn Bui said Marcino doesn’t give herself enough credit.
“She’s everywhere serving the community and giving and giving and giving,” Bui said. “I couldn’t be prouder and more blessed to be her friend.”
Marcino is very passionate about the kids4reel program, Bui said — so much so that her monthly reports on the program to the Flagler Sportfishing Club members often inspire members to donate funds and fishing rods to the cause.
She’s everywhere serving the community and giving and giving and giving. I couldn’t be prouder and more blessed to be her friend.”
— QUINN BUI, Flagler Sportfishing Club member
Marcino is always looking for ways to help out, Bui said, whether it’s at the Sportfishing Club, kids4reel or with the HOA. She helps fundraise for the different organizations, organizes food for the kids program and is just generally ready to help with whatever needs to be done.
And she never once complains about the work.
“Whatever you need, she’s there,” Bui said.
Though her friend will always celebrate the team effort, Bui said, Marcino does a lot of work and deserves the recognition for it.
“She’s always giving 120% of herself to the community,” Bui said.
Helping the children at kids4reel has inspired Marcino to do more. Recently, Marcino said she has even joined in Flagler Volunteer Service’s Reading Pals program and is waiting for her first session at one of Flagler’s schools.
The best part of spending her time with these children, she said, is seeing them succeed with something they’re struggling with.
“To see the world through the eyes of a child,” she said, “and just to help them feel special or help them feel that they have support — the give back isn’t any better than that.”
If the children she sees in kids4reel only take away one thing from the experience, Marcino said, she hopes it’s that they believe “anything is possible.”
“There’s a lot to go out and see and do,” Marcino said. “Just go out and make your dreams happen.”
