Follow Up To F3T Post- Project Healing Waters Viideo

Last week I posted about the Fly Fishing Film Tour and mentioned the Project Healing Waters video that was shown.  It drew a great response and big ovation from the crowd and I am fortunate enough to share that video with you today.  Below is a letter to accompany the video from a gentleman named Jim Kassane, who has a leadership position in this fine organization.  I will let him give you the details but it is my hope that maybe his letter and/or video move you to help support this program in some capacity.

The Greater Kansas City Program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing is featured in a beautiful short film by David Simmons of Thill Media. The film includes interviews with many of our participants and volunteers, and includes coverage of a fishing trip our group took to Rockbridge Trout Resort near Ava, MO. The 10-minute film was included in the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) that made a stop in Kansas City in February.

Simmons’s work was one of several sponsored by Kansas City’s PBS station, KCPT, in preparation for the release of Ken Burns’s documentary on the Vietnam War in the Fall. KCPT will be broadcasting these films throughout the year.

Himself a fly-fisher, Simmons got the idea for the film through his contact with Ron Carruthers, a volunteer with our Greater Kansas City program. Simmons had worked with Carruthers on another project, and the two discussed a feature on Project Healing Waters, which was founded in 2005 by Capt. Ed Nicholson, USN-Ret., at Walter Reed Hospital. Since then, it has grown to more than 200 programs throughout the United States, Europe and Australia.

Simmons attended several fly tying sessions and accompanied the group on the fishing trip to Rockbridge. His interviews with members and volunteers outline the concepts behind the Project Healing Waters program and why they are successful. The fine motor skills of fly tying and fly fishing supplement the vocational and recreational therapy programs of the Veterans Administration Medical Centers, and the camaraderie provides a non-threatening environment in the recovery from Post Traumatic Stress.

Simmons presents his film with compassion, sensitivity and humor, amid the beauty and serenity that inspired the Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing program. It comes from the same passion that turns any of us into fly fishers. The participants on the screen say the program is life-changing, and life-saving.

Jim Kissane

Assistant Program Lead

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing - Greater Kansas City