“Probably the beginning of it all started back with my dad.Dick ‘The Legend’ Wilson.” Says Wilson. “I was probably 17 or 18 years old when he started bringing me to the CCA meetings. I had done a piece of artwork- a speckled trout piece-called ‘Double Trouble’ (Ms First of State Saltwater Stamp and Print) and we raised money to get the gill nets out of the water for the state so we could have speckled trout on Ship Island and Cat Island. Once we were doing that it kind of gave me some realizations about things that I could be doing to try to make a difference here- and that’s kind of how this foundation started. Back then I was already thinking about that and was working on a logofor One Gulf One Goal.” This piece was then used by the CCA who now has awarded Marty with life member status for his years of contributions to that organization.
“The first project I was involved with was when we did the deployment for FH-14.” Says Vice President of One Gulf One Goal, Stacey Magnusen, speaking of one of various Fish Havens that have helped keep our aquatic wildlife healthy and happy. “We were able to get 6.6 million pounds of artificial reef material donated to the foundation. It was a total team effort from our foundation directors, Rigid Constructors,the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources,Ms Gulf Fishing Banks and WC Cotton Fore Construction Co. We were able to deploy it to fish haven FH-14 and they made it into the shape of an O so that it would represent One Gulf One Goal.”
