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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www.deborahdoesdesign.com