June 1st, 2010 I have always been in awe of the remarkable beauty and shear abundance of what the Gulf has to offer. As a native of the southeast, I've spent a tremendous amount of time fishing in the backwaters, estuaries, surf and offshore fisheries from North Carolina to Texas and all the way down to Belize. Now, as the CEO of an early-stage company whose livelihood revolves around local fisheries such as those of the Gulf Coast states, I am challenged with how our company will contribute to the environmental cleanup and people whose lives have been so negatively affected by this disaster. As this letter is being written, several hundred thousand gallons of crude oil per day continue to pour into the Gulf of Mexico as result of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. To put into perspective the magnitude of this disaster, the Exxon Valdez spill released a total of 11 million gallons of crude oil. At the current "estimated" rate that the Deepwater Horizon disaster is leaking oil, it could end up releasing the equivalent of 1 Exxon Valdez spills per week into the Gulf of Mexico. The environmental impact that this oil is having on the surrounding coastal habitat and its people is simply heart wrenching for me to think about. The long-term environmental and economic recovery of this catastrophic event will be measured in terms of decades and in some cases, there will be no recovery at all. The Colt Rod Company will leverage the strength of social media to build awareness of the severity of this situation. In doing so, we also seek ways to lobby for tighter security measures for offshore drilling that will hopefully prevent this from happening again in the future. We hope you will join us in our effort to lobby our representatives in Washington to take aggressive action during this environmental crisis. We will provide relevant updates within the Environmental section of our website at www.coltrods.com. Together we can make a difference. Peter N. Lombardi, CEO Colt Rod Company Download