North Carolina Region Conducts its 7th Annual Marabou Madness Event

March 24, 2020

Recently, participants and volunteers from the Carolinas gathered in Fayetteville, North Carolina for the region’s seventh annual Marabou Madness. Organized by volunteers of the Fayetteville program, the event is an educational weekend for participants consisting of fly-tying and fly-casting instruction. The Pechmann Fishing Education Center facilitates the event perfectly with a large classroom with updated instructional technology and ponds stocked with many large trout from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission who has been a principle booster of the Fayetteville program since its beginning in 2013.

Keynote Speaker, Steve DeLillis discusses the Battle of Mogadishu

As participants arrive on Friday evening, the weekend kicks off with a fundraising dinner with a silent auction. During the dinner, supporters learned about the program from PHWFF CEO, Todd Degrosseilliers.  The gathered crowd then heard from retired LTC. Steve Delillis who chronicled his experiences while assigned to the Army’s Special Missions Unit in Mogadishu, Somalia known as the Blackhawk Down incident. After achieving the rank of Sergeant Major, Steve went on to attend the Physician’s Assist school and served 36 years before retiring. As a PA, he became deeply involved in Traumatic Brain Injury research for which he co-authored more than 20 articles on what is now one of the signature injuries of recent conflicts. From these experiences, Steve stressed the benefits to TBI patients working with organizations such as Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing as an important form of therapy. Special thanks goes to the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association headquartered in Fayetteville for sponsoring this event.

On Saturday, participants crowded in the Pechmann Center’s classroom for a full day of fly-tying instruction from Master tyer, Charlie Craven of Charlie’s Fly Box in Arvada, Colorado. Participants learned tie a variety of patterns to include;

Charlie Craven provides one on one assistance with tying techniques

the Halfback Nymph, Bead Head Pheasant Tail, Duracell, the Renegade, and a Parachute Blue Wing Olive. Sandwiches from Jersey Mike’s for lunch courtesy of Blake Skarpalezos of Blake Contracting.  To break things up, many of vets competed in the Mystery Fly-tying Contest where they are provided a tying material that is unknown until the beginning if the 15-minute tying time. The day was ended with a BBQ dinner and Awards and Recognitions. Regional Coordinator, Tom Carpenter presented Fayetteville Volunteers with Certificates of Achievements.  The Charlotte program was recognized as the Region’s Program of the Year.

For the final day, veterans met on the Pechmann Center ponds for a fishing derby. The NC Wildlife Resources Commission tagged several fish during their stocking. These tag correlated to prizes that ranged from coozies to rod & reel combos. While, only a few tagged fish were caught, participants were still eager to hook one of the many 20 plus inch trout available in the ponds.

Al Kress of the Winston-Salem program.

Craig Person of Fayetteville with a nice Rainbow.

We thank all of the volunteers and participants of PHWFF for coming together for this special gathering. We thank the donors and sponsors who helped make this possible and Headquarters staff for all their behind the scenes efforts that are critical to mission success. Finally, we commend the volunteers of the Fayetteville program for their long hours and commitment to serving our community and veterans.

What makes events like this great is the gathering of people who share like interests and like experiences. With all of the inspiring interest in a Marabou Madness VIII, we say until, next year!

North Carolina Casting Competitors win Big on Redfish

February 6, 2020

Tune into this week’s episode of the Fly Rod Chronicle’s with Curtis Fleming to follow Project Healing Waters Casting competitors to Winston-Salem to compete in the Regional Casting Competition. Then, the regional winner, Vincent Taylor and Ed Bradway will meet up with Curtis and the FRC crew in Oriental, NC to chase giant redfish on the fly with Captain Gary Dubiel.  You can find your local airtimes and watch the episode teaser below

Participant, Jon Rouse at the North Carolina Regional Casting Competition.

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Digital Reach

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Project Healing Waters North Carolina Region Conducts Train-the-Trainer Workshop for Volunteers

November 25, 2019

Recently, volunteers from the Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Asheville, Fayetteville, and Greenville programs met at the Pechmann Fishing Education Center in Fayetteville to receive training in instructing Fly-casting. In all, 15 volunteers participated in the training conducted by the Pechmann Center’s staff and volunteers adapted from lessons learned at the Wulff School of Fly Fishing. The training was conducted over the course of a weekend and included instruction in teaching the roll cast, basic cast, false casting, changing planes and direction, and shooting line. Volunteers also learned about using the hands-on teaching method and using casting forms to help visualize the casting stroke.

Working with casting forms to visualize the casting stroke.

We are grateful for such a wonderful group of dedicated volunteers committed to developing their own skills in the endeavor of greater service to our disabled service members and veterans.

Volunteer John Mauser Recognized for Outstanding Service

November 25, 2019

During this year’s False Albacore Festival in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, North Carolina Regional coordinator, Tom Carpenter presented John Mauser with the region’s Bass/Laney Memorial Award for his long standing commitment to Project Healing Waters and service to the veterans of North Carolina and from across the country.

John Mauser Receiving Bass/Lainey Award

In 2016, it was determined that the NC Region of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing needed to establish a high-level award to recognize the Contributions of Volunteers here in North Carolina.  Eventually we established a general criteria and the objective of this became: To Recognize an individual committed to improving the lives of disabled veterans and that through their actions and attitude has inspired those individuals to improve themselves, their fellow soldiers and the communities in which they live and serve.

The original name of the award was to be the Larry Laney Memorial Award after Western NC native and one of the early Asheville PHWFF participants.  Larry suffered from debilitating arthritis and a degenerative bone condition related to his military service.  To see him you would have wondered how he even moved at all, that is until you placed a fly rod in his hand.  What emerged, besides and infectious smile was one of the most natural and fluid casting strokes you had ever seen. He was truly a testament to the healing that could occur at the end of a fly rod and an inspiration to everyone that met him.

The recipient of the inaugural award was never in question and in 2017 John Bass was pick for the honor.  Unfortunately, only weeks before the presentation we lost John.  For most of us, John was 10-foot-tall despite the fact he had been confined to that wheelchair for over most of his life.  He was the patriarch of PHWFF here in NC and perhaps the most impactful volunteer that the organization had anywhere in the country. I don’t think anyone before or since has been responsible for recruiting more participants to PHWFF than John was.  He believed if he could do it you sure didn’t have an excuse not to.  It was only fitting that we changed the Awards name to be the Bass/Laney Memorial Award.

Mauser began serving PHWFF as program lead for the Crystal Coast program in Swansboro, North Carolina. Later, John along with Chris Thompson, John Snipes, and others revived the False Albacore Festival, as a tournament fundraiser for Project Healing Waters. This event also includes a day of fishing and a dinner for PHWFF participants. John was the face of this outing for many years, recruiting and organizing dozens of boat captains to accommodate the dozens of participants in attendance.  For these reasons, the North Carolina Regional leadership recognizes John as the embodiment of the spirit of this award and a most deserving recipient. John’s passion for fly-fishing, enthusiastic leadership, and devotion to the service of our participants will no doubt prove to be of lasting impact on Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, as a whole.