Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • April 13, 2016 6A
Casting out
Project Healing Waters uses fishing to
bring sense of belonging to veterans
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Alan Fitzpatrick prepares his fly fishing rod on Saturday morning. Fitzpatrick was one of six veterans to attend the rod building workshop in Independence.
By Lukas Eggen
Healing Waters Fly Fishing
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — The saying goes if
you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a life-
time.
Could fishing mean even more?
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing be-
lieves that, for veterans, the answer is yes.
And the local chapter hopes to teach veter-
ans throughout Polk County — whether an
expert or a novice — to use fishing as a way
to help veterans find a sense of belonging.
—
Alan Fitzpatrick, of Salem, knows first-
hand how powerful of an impact Project
Healing Waters can have.
After suffering a knee injury while serving
in Afghanistan, Fitzpatrick returned to Taco-
ma, Wash., in 2014, where he served in the
Warrior Transition Battalion as he recovered
from knee surgery.
His physical recovery was the easy part.
Fitting in proved to be the most difficult
challenge.
“We don’t have a real sense of belonging
or need (when we return),” Fitzpatrick said.
That September, he stumbled upon a
group tying flies. He stopped to investigate
and was introduced to Project Healing Wa-
ters.
He attended almost every Tuesday meet-
ing from then on until he returned to Salem
in March of 2015, where he immediately
reached out to the Salem chapter.
• Healing Waters Fly Fishing is a national organization, originally founded in 2005, whose mis-
sion is “dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service
personnel and disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities, including education
and outings.” The Salem program meets the second Tuesday of every month at the Salem Vet
Center from 4 to 6:30 p.m. More experienced tiers meet the last Tuesday of the month at the
Salem VFW at 4 p.m. All veterans are invited. There is no cost to attend. All costs for supplies, ex-
cursions and equipment will be covered.
• For more information: Frank Flux, 1finespringer@gmail.com.
Fitzpatrick was always more of a gearhead
than a fisherman, but before long, that
didn’t matter.
“This becomes a regular thing. It’s a night
I can spend time with these guys and talk
fishing instead of politics and other kinds of
garbage that we can talk about,” he said.
Fitzpatrick was one of six veterans to at-
tend a fly fishing rod building workshop on
Saturday and Sunday. The workshop, held at
Polk County Fire Station No. 1 in Independ-
ence, is one of numerous activities the
group plans throughout the year.
“The biggest ‘ah ha’ moment for me is
when I’m on the river and fish it,” Fitz-
patrick said. “I can feel the spine that
they’re talking about. I can feel the differ-
ence between my back cast and forecast. I
like those kinds of nuances.”
The room was all smiles — this was a
place where veterans could come together,
something that can be rare once a veteran
returns home.
“It’s nice to be around folks who under-
stand,” Fitzpatrick said. “The person who re-
turns to an active military institution, he’s
still around the guys he deployed with. You
form a bond you won’t have with anyone
else as much as you try. But what about the
retiree or the reservist or someone who re-
turns to Independence? … Oregon doesn’t
have a single federal active military facility. I
mean, where are my peers? To be able to get
together with guys and tie and have some
outings with people who get your issues, it
normalizes you a little bit. These folks
maybe didn’t deploy with you or to the same
country or region, but they deployed.”
It’s clear that those who attended believe
Project Healing Waters does amazing work.
But getting the word out to more veterans
has been a struggle, at least at the local level.
—
Founded in 2005, Project Healing Waters
has expanded nationwide over the last
decade. The program offers a variety of ac-
tivities from tying flies to fishing excursions
all at no cost to the veterans.
“There’s solitude and tranquility out
there,” Daniel Lowe said. “Lots of times,
you’re out on a stream and guess what,
there’s no phone reception. You get away
from every day boredom. We get guys in the
group who are 100 percent disabled. They
have nothing better to do with their time ex-
cept think about what’s wrong with them.
Once they’re out there, time flies and doing
something like this takes their minds off that
stuff.”
The Salem program meets the second
Tuesday of every month at the Salem Vet
Center from 4 to 6:30 p.m. with more experi-
enced fishermen meeting the last Tuesday of
the month at the Salem VFW at 4 p.m. Meet-
ings are open to any veteran.
Now, they’re hoping to increase their net,
finding more veterans who may be looking
for support — something that isn’t easy for
veterans, Fitzpatrick said.
“We’re trying to find the veteran who
doesn’t naturally do this,” he said. “The vet-
eran who needs a place to belong. The veter-
an who doesn’t have waders or a tent and to
be able to outfit that guy and teach him to
fish, rather than give him a fish. There are a
few avid fishermen and a lot of people who
like to hang out and fish. We have guys who
will put a rod in your hand and go fishing.
Even if we don’t catch a thing, we can hang
out on the river and have a good time.”
That, ultimately, is Project Healing Water’s
true goal — to give veterans a chance to be
themselves among people who understand.
“Men can fish their entire life and it’s not
the fish they’re after,” Lowe said. “It’s where
they’re going.”
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
William Lowe inspects part of his fly fishing rod on Saturday. Project Healing Waters
helped provide rod kits for veterans to construct their own fly fishing rods.
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start May 1st!
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
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Round-up
April 14th
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
Daniel Lowe works on preparing part of his fly fishing rod for the next step.
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503-623-4837
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