Glens Falls -- The Open Door Soup Kitchen refused Tuesday to take a donation from owners of a Queensbury bar that hosted a fundraiser that, initially, was meant to benefit a group of perch-poaching fishermen.
A staff member from The Full Moon Bar & Grill brought almost $500 to the shelter, but Bruce Hersey, director of the soup kitchen, decided to refuse the money after reading an article in The Post-Star about controversy surrounding the event.
"I just felt like I couldn't accept it," he said.
The Saturday fish fry was initially billed as a benefit for four men caught poaching yellow perch from Lake George last month.
The anglers kept nearly 300 more yellow perch than they were legally allowed, and each was fined $250 in Fort Ann Town Court.
Many anglers took issue with a fundraiser to help lawbreakers. When the event was publicized and criticized, though, bar owner Adam Casey said it was a "joke," and the money would go to the soup kitchen.
Hersey, though, said he hadn't heard anything from the organizers until late last week, after the event had been advertised for two weeks or so and the controversy was made public. The perch fry did not occur, however. The state Department of Health found the fish had been prepared off-site and were being stored improperly, rules violations that prompted the Full Moon's staff to dispose of 45 pounds of perch that was to be served.
A collection taken at the bar, in lieu of the fish fry, raised the $500, according to the bar's Web site.
Casey said Tuesday he plans to donate the money to another charity, although he would not say which one.
"I'm not going to keep it myself," he said.
Casey said he was not behind efforts to circulate fliers advertising the fish fry around the region, including putting them on the windshields of cars at ice-fishing access areas.
"It got blown way out of proportion," he said. "It's not something we wanted to cause a problem over."
Hersey, meanwhile, said the soup kitchen has been hit with record requests for help, with the number of meals it has given out tripling in less than four years.
"We've been giving out so much food, all the way out to the town of Day," he said.
