Gorge Fly Shop Blog: SafeSpace - April is Child Abuse Awareness Month

Gorge Fly Shop has been supporting SafeSpace for over six years. The toy drive during the Holiday Season and donations of fly fishing gear for summer auctions. Gorge Fly Shop's goal is to bring awareness and support for SafeSpace. Gorge Fly Shop's Community of anglers from all over has supported SafeSpace. We support SafeSpace because we believe in the work that they do for the children in our communities.

Over the past six years, Gorge Fly Shop and our community of fly anglers have donated well over ten thousand dollars worth of money and donations. The support from our angling community over the years has been very touching and heartfelt.

Last year, we changed our Toy drive by asking our angling community to help "Build a Backpack". This idea came to life as we learned that children often come to Safespace, leaving a situation that is not safe, and are placed into a safer living situation.

These backpacks provided more than just the contents inside. Providing children with a sense of security, ownership, and comfort. Our friend Terry learned about the need for backpacks and took it upon himself to build and donate backpacks. He filled each backpack with personal care items shampoo, combs, water bottles, deodorant, plus comfort items like blankets and stuffed animals. SafeSpace staff shared with us just how much these backpacks meant to each child who received one. We decided our goal for the Toy Drive for 2024 would be to build backpacks so that each child would receive one.

Terry and Lyndsey worked together creating SafeSpace Closet after finding out how great the need is for clean clothing.

In March 2025, Lyndsey Duddles was elected to the SafeSpace board. She is excited to join SafeSpace, having a greater role in supporting SafeSpace and her community. Terry also joined the board in February 2025, with his extensive skills in accounting for nonprofits, they were beyond happy to have his support.

Gorge Fly Shop would like to extend its sincerest gratitude to the angling community for their support of SafeSpace.

If you would like to learn more about SafeSpace and how you can support them, feel free to reach out to us or them directly.