While a retired U.S. Navy captain was undergoing cancer treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 2005, all he wanted to do was go fishing. So on weekends, Captain Ed Nicholson would grab his rod and waders and go fly fishing. He then began inviting other veterans from the hospital to join him.
From this effort was born Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, with a mission to help rehabilitate wounded veterans through unique outdoor programming. The organization now has more than 200 programs nationwide to support active duty military service members and veterans through fly fishing and related activities, including education and outings.
“It really doesn’t make a difference what branch of service you come from,” Bill Campbell, Virginia regional coordinator for the Healing Waters Fly Fishing Project, told NowThis. “We do not care. You speak our language, and we speak yours, and we are all in this together to make the journey of healing.”
The non-profit organization works to make the sport accessible even to veterans with disabilities. They work to show that a physical disability doesn’t have to stop someone from enjoying outdoor activities. “I don’t think fly fishing is hard to learn,” Campbell said. “I think it’s like any sport. We give them a safe place where they can be themselves and where they can be distracted from all these things. And then we let them focus on something that’s healthy, that’s constructive, and that happens in beautiful, peaceful places.”
The programs offered by Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing are much more than day fishing trips. One of the offerings that Campbell said is most rewarding for participants is the rod building sessions. “There’s nothing more rewarding than catching a fish with a rod they built with a fly they tied,” he said. “Tying flies and building rods requires some kind of manual dexterity, and people who have limited upward mobility problems or who have some kind of mild mobility problems because of their service experience get to work on that manual dexterity while they tie flies and build rods. . . So it’s therapeutic in that sense.”
The Campbell chapter of the nonprofit has partnered with Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, which he says is one of the best places to fish for trout. Through a scholarship, he has now led two wild trout trips.
“Trout don’t live in ugly places,” he said. “I’ve had guys go out saltwater fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, and they’ll go out on the water, and you can’t see anything but the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel for miles, but they’ll come back and say, “It was beautiful out there. Now, all they saw was water, but just to be outside and breathe fresh air and do something healthy, it felt good.”
Find out how you can help support the National Park Foundation during the Subaru Share the Love event by visiting subaru.com/share.