Josie's Gift was founded in 2016 in the memory of Josie Perea. She was a young girl that I met at the children's hospital in Madison Wisconsin. Josie was fighting Neuroblastoma and spent many days and nights in the children's hospital. Josie was an old soul, she did everything she could do to put a smile on everyone's face. She changed my outlook on life. I've had many medical issues over the years and after seeing what her and the other kids are going through I realized I have no problems and life could be much worse than it is. One day she came in and she was very unhappy, which was not like her to be. I asked what was wrong and she would not even talk to me about it. I asked her Mother and it turns out that they were hosting a Kids fishing day as a fundraiser for her family and Josie was upset that she could not join in the fun. That is when I decided to build a custom fishing rod for her. She loved her pink, purple, sparkly rod that we named The Tiny Dancer Rod. As her time drew near to the end with us she told me "it would be neat if I could help other children like I helped her."? I told her I could under one condition, and that was that we needed to call it "Josie's Gift"?. Her reply was "I think we can do that."? As of January 2025 we have donated over 80 custom fishing rods to kids that are or have fought medical battles. We also hold a Josie's Gift Kids Fishing Day each summer. The first year we had 3 kids join us and 2025 will be the 5th annual event and we are planning on having over 50 kids join us for a day filled with smiles on the water.

In March of 2023 we were granted 501c3 non-profit status. Our goal is to grow Josie's Gift into other states with the help of other rod builders. We want to grow the kids fishing day into a bigger event. We are in the process of coming up with a way to help support the ones that support the kids.

Daniel W. O'Kane Founder: josiesgift22@gmail.com

Laura J. O'Kane

Jessica Perea, (Josie's Mother): Jessicajosiesgift@gmail.com

Jerome Perea (Josie's Father)

Gary Mongelli

Grace Mongelli - Honorary board member

BJ Dorschner: Bjjosiesgift@gmail.com

Greyson Arnold: Greysonjosiesgift@gmail.com

Rachel Wogsland: Racheljosiesgift@gmail.com

Brad Winkler: bradjosiesgift@gmail.com