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My son, Luke, is now 10 years old and was diagnosed as being
autistic shortly after he turned two years old. While the
autism spectrum is wide my son's major challenges in development
center on focus, attention, oral speech communication, and
fine and gross motor skills. He attends a special school which
teaches by the principals of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA).
Since the age of 3 he has attended school approximately 48 weeks
a year 9 AM to 3 PM five days a week. He also has several
hours of home based therapy consisting of speech therapy,
occupational therapy, self help and living skills as well
as additional ABA teaching. It's amazing that despite this
seemingly never ending education program he is eager to learn
and loves going to school each and every day.
Outside of school, Luke and I enjoy many things that all dads and sons enjoy.
Luke always asks to go to Bass Pro Shops on Fridays when I pick him up from school. This is something I never take for granted because he really couldn't speak any words till he was five years old. He still has a limited vocabulary but, it is growing every week. We also go to museums and parks. He loves riding his bike with me, taking trips to the beach, learning how to play hockey and basketball, taking gymnastics class and going out for ice cream, hot dogs and french fries. A few summers ago, I introduced him to fishing and his love for the water made it a natural love for him. He's able to independently cast a rod ,with a little help catch some fish, and he loves to tell me "go fast " when I put the boat up on plane (no, we never really go fast but to him it's so exciting)
As for me, I grew up in the Boston area and because of my
wonderful parents and grand parents I was involved from an
early age in sports and fishing/boating. I was fortunate enough
to play hockey for four years at the University of Vermont
and then played at the professional/semi pro level for a couple
of years after that. After hockey, I started working in my
family's real estate and development business full time. Through
out my college years I fished and then started fishing in
local Bass Fishing events at the local BASS club level and
then at the State BASS Federation level, Red Man trails, NABA,
NEBA, ABA and now TBF level. I would like to further my tournament
fishing in the Bass Master Weekend series and the FLW TBF
trails next year. Hopefully, I might be able to advance to
the BASS Open level or Stren Series if things go well.
When I got this Stroker, Mercury powered, boat this summer,
I thought this was a wonderful opportunity to promote through
tournament bass fishing autism awareness and as well the plight
of so many people affected by cancer (both my parents died
from cancer) through the support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
I saw the attention all the BASS and FLW fully wrapped boats
were getting nationally and even saw how a few local pro's
were wrapping their boats in promotion of their sponsors,
but I thought I'd take a different path and promote these
two causes which mean so much to me. Hopefully, my boat will
draw attention of endemic and non endemic sponsors and entities
in the world of tournament bass fishing and help me bring
a greater awareness of these important issues to our society.
Thanks for visiting our site.
Eli Delany
None of this from the graphic design and wrap of my boat to
this web site would be possible without the skills, patience,
and love of my truly wonderful wife Deborah who has
stood by me and with me through some very tough times.
Thanks Deb, I love you very much! 
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