The Kiddie Pond was, many decades ago, the original swimming pool at Cook Forest , but it was abandoned when the new pool beside the Sawmill Center along Forest Drive was built in the 1960s.

The pond is specially designated for fishing by children and people with special needs.

Jack Wynkoop was a park ranger at Cook Forest , and after he retired he and Jim Conti got the idea to stock the old pool with fish so that children could enjoy a little easy trout fishing.

With the help of local resident John Zavacky, they set out in 1989 to raise money to stock the pond, going door-to-door to businesses in the Cook Forest area.

Farrell-Lavery said she and Wynkoop used to see kids fishing in the former swimming pool. “We knew there were no fish in there,” she said, “and once Jack retired he and Jim decided to stock it.”

Now Farrell-Lavery has shouldered the task, and she sends out between 250 and 300 letters each year, asking friends of the project to continue their generosity and keep the project going.

The money is used to stock the pond with about 300 trout every week, starting in the second week of June.

The pond is fed by Toms Run, which rises in northern Farmington Township and is shaded for nearly its entire length, so the water stays plenty cold enough for trout when it reaches the pond in Cooksburg a few hundred yards above the Clarion River .

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocks Toms Run, but not the pond, Farrell-Lavery said.

She emphasizes that the Kiddies Fishing Program is separate from the one-day fishing derby sponsored by the state park and held only on the first Sunday in June.

The Kiddies Fishing Program begins the second week of June, continues through the summer, and is run and funded by a private non-profit organization.

Farrell-Lavery has been sending out her fundraising letter for some years now, and says this year the program needs more money because of the rising cost of energy has hit the program’s fish supplier.

“So if you can send more than the usual amount that you so generously donate,” Farrell-Lavery wrote in this year’s letter, “we would definitely appreciate it.”

Jack Wynkoop’s daughter Deb Boden makes a quilt every year, and those who donate $25 or more to the fishing program have their names entered for a drawing.

The quilt drawing is held at the end of the season, usually around Labor Day. Last year, Ethel MacBeth of Cooksburg won the quilt.

Farrell-Lavery says she hand addresses each fundraising letter, many of which are sent to program supporters in Pittsburgh , Philadelphia and Ohio .

And everyone who donates will have their names posted on a bulletin near the fishing pond, Farrell-Lavery said.

“On behalf of the children, the handicapped and myself,” Farrell-Lavery wrote in this year’s fundraising letter, “we thank you for your continued support of the program because if it were not for you, this program would not still be in existence.”

Those wishing to donate to the program can mail checks to the Kiddies fishing Program, P.O. Box 42 , Cooksburg , Pa. , 16217 . Donations can also be dropped of in a collection box near the fishing pond.