× Sweepstakes truck wide shot
×

NEWS & STORIES

Announcements & Press
All
Announcements
Dispatches from Atz Kilcher
In The News
PHW Spotlight
Press Releases
Stories from the field
By Location
All
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Georgia-South Carolina
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Kentucky-Ohio
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Mid-South
Midwest
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
National Capital
Nebraska
Nevada
New England
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
New York-New Jersey
North Dakota
North-Carolina
Northern New York
Northwest
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Regional
Rocky Mountain Northeast
Rocky Mountain Northwest
Rocky Mountain South
South Carolina
South Central
South Dakota
Southern New York
Southwest
Tennessee
Tennessee-Valley
Texas
The Heartland
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
By Event
All
2018 2-Fly
Broadmoor Invitational
Freedom Ranch for Heroes
Healing Saturday
Hike to Heal Veterans
HoF NOVA
Holy Waters
Mossy Creek Invitational
Phil Johnson Exceptional Leadership Award

LaPlata, MD –Encore.org today announced that Ed Nicholson, Founder and President of Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, is a 2012 Purpose Prize fellow. The Purpose Prize is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social entrepreneurs and other creative problem solvers in the second half of life.

Nicholson was named a fellow because of his efforts to aid the rehabilitation of injured, wounded and disabled military service personnel through Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings. Nicholson started the first program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. in 2005. A retired Navy Captain who was there for his own medical care, he saw young service members who had been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan and was inspired to teach them fly fishing and fly tying for both recreation and therapy. The program caught on with patients and physical therapists and today has more than 140 programs at Department of Defense and Veterans Administration facilities across the U.S. There are also partner programs in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

edpurposeprize“Purpose Prize fellows are using their passion and experience to help solve some of society’s steepest challenges,” said Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Encore.org and author of The Big Shift. “They represent a growing wave of people in their 60s and beyond who are using their knowhow to change the world, while shifting perceptions of what is possible in this stage of life.”

The Purpose Prize program is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Prize is awarded by Encore.org (the new name for Civic Ventures), a nonprofit that promotes encore careers – work that is both personally meaningful and serves the greater good.

“I remain committed to helping our disabled veterans and service members enjoy a better life, through participation in fly fishing education and outings,” Nicholson said. “More importantly, we have found that the program helps build lasting mentoring relationships that follow our participants as they transition to civilian life and reintegrate with family,” he added. “I am honored to have been selected as a Purpose Prize Fellow in recognition of the incredible work all our volunteers have done to advance the cause of PHWFF – serving our disabled veterans across the United States and abroad.”

A panel of 23 judges – leaders in business, politics, journalism and the nonprofit sector – chose the five winners from a pool of more than 800 nominees. This year’s 35 fellows are finalists for The Prize. An awards ceremony will be held in February in San Francisco.

For more information about The Purpose Prize, visit: www.encore.org/prize.

###

About Encore.org (www.encore.org)
Encore.org
is a nonprofit organization building a movement to make it easier for millions of people to pursue “encore careers” – second acts for the greater good. The Purpose Prize, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, is a program of Encore.org.