Togus 2007 Kickoff

Project Healing Waters (Northeast) is pleased to report that the 12 February 2007 kick-off meeting at the Togus, Maine VA Medical Center was well attended and a great success.

First, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Teri Olson and her chain of command at Togus. From our first contact with Teri last August, she has been an enthusiastic supporter of PHW and through this support, Monday’s meeting was made possible. We would also like to thank Sean McCormick, Greg Ponte and Dave Hedrick from the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited for their generous support by taking the local lead with the Togus program. Also in attendance was Macauley Lord of the LL Bean Flyfishing School, and Maine Guides Aldro French and Michael Jones.

By my count, about 25 veterans and volunteers attended the meeting. Representing Project Waters was PHW Program Director Ed Nicholson and CPT Eivind Forseth, USA. Ed chaired the meeting and introduced CPT Forseth, who spoke about PHW as it related to his own recovery from wounds he sustained in Iraq and other veterans who have benefited form the PHW flyfishing program. The meeting was then opened for questions and answers.

Dave Hedrick was named the local TU point of contact to work directly with Teri Olson in setting up training. A schedule of events will be published in the very near future.

Since we began our discussions with Teri, there have been meetings with other VA Medical Centers staffs who are interested in fly fishing as physical and emotional therapy. The next official PHW kick-off will be VA Boston at the Brockton VA Medical Center on 24 March. CPT Forseth will also attend that event.

Thank you all again for your kind and generous support of our Veterans and Project Healing Waters. I will keep you updated as we go along.

Cleve Van Haasteren