About
1 in 8 U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course
of her lifetime; this is a startling statistic. Last year
I found a way to help women dealing with breast cancer as a volunteer for the Casting for Recovery (CFR)
retreat in my home state of Oregon. CFR is a national non-profit support and
educational program for women of all ages and in all stages of breast cancer.
It provides retreats at no cost to participants, which allow women whose lives
have been profoundly affected by breast cancer to gather in a beautiful,
natural setting and learn to fly fish.
At the retreat I witnessed a program that brought hope,
gratitude, peace, inspiration, encouragement, and strength to women recovering
from breast cancer. I walked away
inspired and fired up to once again use my spey casting skills
to raise money for Casting for Recovery and team up with past Spey-O-Rama champion,Whitney Gould .
At the SOR finals, a wind advisor
was in effect that day. Gust of 20-35 WNW winds made it far from ideal
conditions. Swirling, blustery weather would blow a cast 20 feet back and slam
the line on the water. With just 6 minutes to complete 12 casts, it was
challenging to have the patience and wait for the “right wind.” It was one of
the most interesting competitions to watch.
Despite gusty conditions, both the men and woman made some big cast. Whitney and my combined distance was 265 feet. Based on that, with your pledges we raised over $7000.00 for the CFR Nor Cal and Northern Oregon
Retreats.
I would like to thank
all you that contributed and made this possible.
Simms,
Echo,
Gary
Anderson Custom Rod, Nautilus
Reel, Boggs
Trail Butter,
Owl
Creek Flies , Sage Products
Little Creek
Outfitters , Royal Treatment Fly Shop, Fanny Krieger, Judith O'keefe, Rebecca Blair, The Drake , Gink and Gasoline , Deneki , Roger
Grummel, Cynthia Ervin, Eunice Higgens, Chris Deleone, George Olmsted,
Stephanie Gould, Blue Ribbon Sales, Mark Seligman, Dylan Rose, Doug Morgan,
Judith Brown, Paul Ridgway, Mary and Jim Bast, Glen Foster, Nanaette Rich, Paul
Nicodemus, Karen Gould, Richard Harrington, Jeff Howard, Genevieve Long,
Douglas Jett, Mike Williams, Darryl Gould, Linda Slater, Andrea Warner, Swing
the Fly, Anne Vitale, Rob Perkins, Nick English, Catherine
Slaugh, Phil Renner, Sharon Gould, Mark Huber, Cheryl Bell, Scott Humphrey,
Suzanne Gulick, Steve Egge, Rob Sims, Clay Krull, James Reid, Lee Lashway, Ram Reagan, Rob
Stuart, Kate Taylor, Hal Leavell, Poppy Cummins, Lindsay Vincent, Kristen
Kinsman, Summer Run Guide Service, Carla
Lessard, William Swindell, Raging River Sales, Saracione,
Congrats to Steve Egge who won the fishing trip and Andrea Warner who won the casting lesson.
The raffle items went to:
Simms
Backpack -
Sage Rod - Carla
Lessard
Nautilus Reel - Mark
Huber
Echo Rod - Mike
Williams
Gary Anderson Rod -
Glenn Foster
Boggs Trail Butter –
Summer Run Guide Service
Owl Creek Flies - Glen
