CROOKSTON – The untimely death of Adam Parnow in a spray plane crash on June 27, 2023, has led his family to channel their grief into a meaningful initiative. Instead of traditional funeral flowers, they encouraged people to contribute to a youth fishing scholarship.
An avid outdoorsman who always has time for the kids, Adam is 39 years old.
“Every time I look at an obituary, I look at what the family is asking for memorials,” her father, Fred Parnow, said this week. “We thought about it, and our middle son, Matt, said ‘Get Kids Outdoors,’ and we all resoundedly said ‘Yes, that’s it.’ ”
Adam’s job as a spray plane pilot took up most of his time in the summer, but he always had time for the kids in the winter, Fred Parnow said.
“It’s not just fishing, it’s all the outdoor opportunities,” said Parnow, a licensed charter boat captain with a retirement gig as a summer fishing guide at Border View Lodge on Lake of the Woods. “Where he lived in Crookston here, there was a park across the street and he would go over there and play boot hockey with the kids.
“And that’s just a short story.”
Matt Parnow’s suggestion for a memorial set the stage for Get Kids Outdoors-Adam Parnow Memorial Inc., a nonprofit the family formed this past fall to preserve Adam’s legacy by providing outdoor experiences for to young people who may not have the opportunity.
“We want to carry on his name and his legacy, and that’s what we’re committed to doing,” Fred Parnow said. “It’s about maintaining and building on his legacy.”
Saturday, Feb. 3, that promise will be fulfilled when the nonprofit hosts the first-ever Get Kids Outdoors ice fishing event on Island Lake south of Lengby, Minnesota.
Contributed / Fred Parnow
The Get Kids Outdoors fishing event is open to 40 young anglers 11 to 15 years old with some ice fishing experience. Bus transportation will be provided from Crookston to Island Lake, where volunteers will host young anglers at various fish houses for an afternoon of ice fishing.
Participants should check in at the Crookston High School parking lot at 12:30 pm, and the bus will leave at 1 pm for the trip to Island Lake. Kids fish with qualified adults from 2 to 5 pm, and young anglers will rotate between fish houses and setups to experience everything from fishing in deluxe comfort to sitting outside for 5 -gallon bucket and freezing “just like we did when we were kids,” Parnow said.
Students from the University of Minnesota Crookston’s Natural Resources Club will provide a “Classroom on Wheels” during the bus ride, Parnow said, teaching the young fishermen about everything from fish ID and aquatic invasive species to hook tying and other outdoor skills. In addition, Scheel’s provided snowshoes for children to try out on the ice.
“The whole thing is to expose kids to outdoor activities — whatever that is,” Parnow said. “The long-term goal is for them to continue these activities into their adult lives.”
Contributed / Fred Parnow
A meal will be served at 5 p.m., and the bus will return to Crookston at 7 p.m. All the young fishermen will go home with a new ice fishing rod combo, tackle box, an assortment of lures and other goodies, he said.
By midweek, 34 of the 40 openings for the excursion had been filled, Parnow said. If there are more than 40 applicants, participants will be selected by drawing and notified on Sunday, Jan. 28.
They chose Island Lake for the excursion because it’s known for producing crappies and bluegills, and the kids would be successful, Parnow said. Some people from the Crookston and East Grand Forks areas also had fish houses on the lake and volunteered to host the children.
“The houses will be all set up and ready to go when the kids get there,” Parnow said. “When the bus got there in Lengby – the ice was thick enough, by the way – two people offered their Bombardiers to drive the children to where these houses were so they could have that experience .
“They will experience the whole thing. We will feed them and bring them back to town.”
Contributed / Fred Parnow
Hopefully, Parnow said, the young fishermen will also come home with fish.
“One of the goals — and I’m sure it will happen — is for every kid to go home with a bag of fish,” Parnow said. “And there was someone making some spices to take home with some instructions so they could share with their family when they got home.”
The response to the inaugural Get Kids Outdoors fishing event has been gratifying, Parnow said. American Crystal provided the bus, and companies such as Clam Corp., Ice Buster Bobbers, Lindy Tackle, Polaris and Scheel’s all donated fishing gear and other items. Other sponsors include Andy Oman State Farm, Crookston Fire Fighters Association, LeBlanc Realty, NAPA-Crookston Welding, Ricard Sod Farm, Sunrich Products, UMC Natural Resource Club, United Valley Bank and Wild Dutchman Sunflower Seeds.
“We hardly ever ask anyone” for donations, Parnow said. “Since I became a guide, I met some people in that network. You’re talking to these companies, and they’re like, ‘What do you need? What can we do? How can we help?’ ”
Looking forward, Parnow said, the hope is to host three or four Get Kids Outdoors events annually. They applied for a grant through the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ No Child Left Inside Grant Program and should know if they received funding in the near future.
Not this winter, Parnow said, but future plans also include purchasing a hard-sided fish house to be built on the Red Lake River for families with children to view and enjoy the experience of ice fishing.
“We’ll buy bait, they’ll check out the house for the day — or half a day, whatever — and there’ll be a bucket of fishing rods in there, and they can fish for the day and bring the bucket back,” Parnow said. “It’s all about exposing young people to outdoor activities.”
There’s an old adage that there’s good in everything, Parnow said, and Get Kids Outdoors may have been the good that came from Adam’s tragic death. Whether it was elk hunting, ice fishing, snowmobiling or trying to share his time with children, Adam touched many people’s lives in his 39 years, his father said.
Contributed / Fred Parnow
“We had over 600 cards – memorial cards,” after Adam died, Parnow said. “And between the visitation service and the funeral service, there were over 700 people there. That’s the impact he had on this place and in his work and in his leisure time, and we need to carry on his name.”
With Get Kids Outdoors, they will.
“We’re just overwhelmed as a family — people in the community and again, different parts of people,” Parnow added. “He has an elk hunting group — his network of hunting buddies — he has an ice fishing network and he has a snowmobiling network. And we’ve heard so many stories that we don’t know about our son from his peers in those groups. It’s just amazing.
“When he did something, he did it by jumping with two feet.”
For more information on the upcoming Get Kids Outdoors fishing event, contact Fred or Beth Parnow at (218) 280-6344 or by email at [email protected] .
getkidsoutdoorsmn.org
