“Healing Saturday” Activities Promote and Support Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing

Healing Saturday will be Nov. 3 at K&K Fly Fishers at 8643 Grant St. in Overland Park, KS. A day full of fun will begin at 10 a.m., with fly tying and fly casting demonstrations, product representatives, raffles and a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will go to the Greater Kansas City Program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

by Jim Kissane

Assistant Program Lead

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing - Greater Kansas City

Area fly fishers owe it to themselves to find their way to K&K Flyfishers in Overland Park on Nov. 3 to take part in a growing event called “Healing Saturday.” The activities will begin at 10 a.m. and will wrap up around 3 p.m., with a full day of fly casting and fly tying clinics, barbecue, auctions, raffles and other treats.

Area fly tyers will give demonstrations throughout the day, including Mike George of Olathe, a world-wide gold medal winner for his deer hair fly creations. We will also have games, raffles and a silent auction. Factory reps from various manufacturers will be on hand to offer demonstrations and instruction on their products, including fly rods and reels, lines and other gear.

Proceeds from the day’s events will benefit our Greater Kansas City Program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, giving us the resources to provide program services to our Veterans community and outreach to bring those benefits to more Veterans who need them.

“Healing Saturday is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” said Bob Barnett, director of the Greater Kansas City Program. “Over the years, it has grown into an important event in the fly fishing community in Kansas City.

In addition to the “Healing Saturday” raffles and auctions, K&K Fly Fishers will have factory reps from various fly fishing manufacturers on hand for casting clinics and product demonstrations.

“Kevin and Kathy and their staff at K&K Flyfishing do a wonderful job of organizing the event, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate their support of our program. There really is something for everyone during the day’s activities. We always look forward to this event.”

In a circle-of-life kind of synergy, many of our participants and their spouses are craftsmen and artists, and they have donated items such as woodworking pieces or hand-painted art works for auction. It’s their way of saying “Thank you” for the Project Healing Waters programs; the thing is, Project Healing Waters is a program that says “Thank you” to the Veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much to sustain our country and our freedom.

Mike Davis, for example, is an expert woodworker. “It was a form of therapy to help me with my brain injury before Healing Waters came along,” says Davis, who serves as the Outreach Coordinator for our Program. “I enjoy doing it. Most of my experience is in wood turning. Lately I’ve been branching out into flat work, things like cutting boards and fly boxes. I also do leatherwork.”

He enjoys putting his personal touch on his pieces, such as an inlaid mayfly, which makes every project unique.

“I’ve also started making fishing nets as a way of expanding my skills,” he says. “Whether it’s fly tying or woodworking, I have to keep challenging myself, learning new things. Fishing nets are a way of challenging myself, laminating the wood and bending the wood. I personalize each piece, either with turquoise rock, an inlaid fly, stuff like that.”

Look for a fishing net with such a pattern on the auction table on Healing Saturday.

Similarly, Dave Frank took up painting as an activity during his recuperation from a heart attack. He donated a beautiful water color painting of a rainbow trout to last year’s “Healing Saturday” and I was fortunate enough to be the high bidder on it. The painting now hangs proudly in my “man cave.” I can’t wait to see what these talented artists have in store for us on Nov. 3.

Mike Davis, Outreach Coordinator of our Greater Kansas City program of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, is also a woodworker. Among his recent projects are fishing nets like this one, with a mayfly pattern inlaid in the handle, which will be on the “Healing Saturday” auction table.

Our program utilizes the proceeds of “Healing Saturday” to provide fly tying classes, equipment and materials for our participants, who have grown in number from some 20-25 regulars to an average turnout from 30-35. We also teach a fly tying class ever three weeks in at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center. Funding also supports our fly fishing outings, including our annual trip to Rockbridge Trout Resort in Southern Missouri, as well as trips to Bennett Spring and Roaring River State Trout Parks.

In addition, we are looking forward to expanding our program to reach the residents of the Veterans Community Project, the “tiny homes” neighborhood at 89^th and Troost in South Kansas City, and elsewhere in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area. With thousands of Veterans returning stateside from the Middle East each year, 10-20% of whom with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress and other combat wounds, expanding the scope of our Veterans programs must be an ongoing priority.

Deer hair creations by Mike George of Olathe, an internationally renowned fly tyer, will be on display at “Healing Saturday” at K&K Fly Fishers.

The idea of a “Healing Saturday” event actually originated in Missouri, with programs in St. Louis and Kansas City fostering the idea of such an event, occurring close to Veterans Day, to generate support and raise funds for Veteran programs across the country. The event is reaching nationwide proportion, with most Project Healing Waters programs targeting the last weekend in September. Missouri programs continue to focus on the weekend before Veterans Day, which follows the close of the fishing season in Missouri’s Trout Parks.

K&K Fly Fishers is locate at 87^th and Grant (8643 Grant St.) in Overland Park. For more information, contact them at  913-341-8118, website www.kkflyfisher.com, email sales@kkflyfisher.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/kkflyfisher/ .