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From staff reports 07/23/2008

UNITY -- More than $300,000 in scholarships, prizes and gift certificates will be available during Unity College's 6th annual "Fishing for Scholarships" tournament this Sunday. Among the scholarships available will be one four-year tuition waiver.

The tournament will be held on Lake Winnecoo, which is also known as Unity Pond.

Information about Lake Winnecook is online at http://www.lakewinnecook.com.

Registration will begin at 6 a.m. at the gymnasium on the Unity College campus, and a free continental breakfast will be available until 7 a.m. Participants will meet for the tournament start at the public boat launch on the lake.

Four hundred total participants and three hundred fishing vessels are expected to participate in the tournament. Organizers have tagged 200 bass, pickerel, perch and black crappie. This is a human-powered-only event. No motors of any kind are allowed. Participants are all current and incoming Unity College students, family members, alumni, staff and faculty.

The tournament will start at 7:30 a.m. with a starting horn sounded by Unity College president Mitchell Thomashow and conclude at 1:30 p.m. Scholarships and other awards will be presented beginning at 2 p.m. on the Unity College campus at the outdoor amphitheater.

The tournament is the largest collegiate inland, non-mechanized, one day catch-and-release fishing tournament in the United States.

"Any student who catches a tagged fish will remove the tag and release the fish," said Joe Saltalamachia, Unity's associate director of admissions and the tournament coordinator. "Tags will be turned in to tournament officials and students will be informed of the scholarship amount at the award ceremony."

In 2007, the tournament attracted more than 400 participants, and more than $20,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded -- including one student who won a one-year tuition waiver.

"We are hoping that this is the year that a four-year tuition waiver is landed by one lucky student," Saltalamachia said.

A tournament registration form with complete details and schedule is available online at http://www.unity.edu/uploadedFiles/wwwunityedu/NewsEvents/Event_Calendar/fishinvitationt08.pdf.

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