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For as long as Mountain View teen Dean Wu can remember, he’s faced severe food allergies.
“When I was really young, my food allergies were so severe that I couldn’t eat out or travel,” 16-year-old Wu said. “If someone had eaten peanut butter and then not washed their hands and rubbed their hands on a surface, with me being super young, if I touched that surface and then put my fingers in my mouth I would have to go to the hospital.”
But in third grade, Wu’s life changed when he got to participate in a food allergy trial at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University.
“The trial tested this drug that would help desensitize people to their allergens,” Wu said. “At the end of the trial, I built up tolerance to the point where I could have three to four peanuts, walnuts, almonds and pecans, and then drink a little bit of milk.”
Before the trial, Wu always had to be within close proximity to a hospital in case something went wrong, meaning he couldn’t venture too far into rural places, and especially not out in remote nature. But today, Wu’s able to pursue his passion for the outdoors without fear: He’s visited more than a dozen National Parks with his family, and in the past few years has found a new passion in bass angling.
On Oct. 29, Wu is hosting the second annual Food Allergy Kayak Bass Fishing Fundraiser Tournament at Pardee Reservoir, a couple hour’s drive northeast from the Peninsula. All proceeds from the event will benefit food allergy research at Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center, where Wu participated in the allergy drug trial years ago. Participants can register here, and find the full schedule for the event here.
“A lot of the lakes for fishing, they’re pretty far from a big city. Usually they’re kind of out in the middle of nowhere, extremely rural places,” Wu said. “There’s no way if I hadn’t gone through the trial that I’d even be able to visit those places, let alone fish in those places.”
Last year, the first annual tournament drew nearly forty anglers to Clear Lake in Lake County, California, and raised $8,500 for the Sean N. Parker Center. The first place winner caught a bass measuring 91 inches.
This year’s event at Pardee Reservoir will kick off with a 6:30 a.m. check in time and 7:30 a.m. launch.
“The way kayak fishing works is you put a fish on a measuring board, and then you release it right after, which is actually a safer and better way to catch and release the fish,” Wu said.
In other types of bass fishing competitions, participants keep their catches on board to weigh them in at the end of the tournament and then release them all at once, which Wu said often causes fish death because there’s too many concentrated in one spot.
“But with kayak fishing, you just take a picture of it (on a measuring board) and then release it right away, so it doesn’t actually disturb the natural ecosystem of where the fish are,” Wu said.
This year’s event will also feature a silent auction, plus a raffle and lunch included in the cost of registration. Prizes and silent auction items were donated by premier fishing companies and local businesses that Wu reached out to himself.
“Last year we probably had around 25 different companies and individuals who supported the event, which was huge,” Wu said. “This year, we probably have close to 30 or 35 different companies and individuals, which is crazy just to think about that.”
For those who don’t fish but still want to support the fundraiser can find a donation page here.
