RIB MOUNTAIN, Wis. (WSAW) - Teachers and volunteers spent time teaching special needs students to fish and enjoy the outdoors at D.C. Everest's annual day at the bay event.

For more than two decades, the D.C. Everest Fishing Team has shared fishing tips and fish stories with special needs students. It's part of their 'Day at the Bay' event at Bluegill Bay Park.

"It's incredibly rewarding, I don't know how else to put it," Special Ed Teacher and Fishing Coach Joel DeBoer said. "There's something really special, it takes you back to being a kid and the excitement you had even with the smallest bluegill or whatever, and to be able to help facilitate that to another young person is pretty rewarding, pretty special."

Their goal is to make a connection and create an everlasting bond.

"I'm just here to hang out with my friend Christian and to fish for a while. To get out of school," DCE student Austin Kufahl said.

The sport shows students a social bonding, stress relief and a connection to nature

"And then the second cast, I caught a tree and the worm went flying into the river," DCE student Christian Wenzelow laughed.

The two friends are here for the fish, and they have some advice.

"Just hope it's a big one," Christian said.

"If you are fishing, just have a good time, relax, maybe catch something," Austin added.

For some students, the event is an opportunity to reel in their first fish.

This is the 19th year DeBoer has been a part of this event. He says the nearly 40 kids who get to participate look forward to it for months.

"You have kids -- it'll be January and they're like, 'We're going fishing, right? We're going fishing?' Like we've got a ways to go," DeBoer shared. "It is so much fun to get kids out fishing and to be able to share that experience. There's just nothing like it."

Teachers say the community helps put this event on. A local bait shop donated some worms, and they got a pretty good discount on the pizza for students.