Outdoor Experience for Veterans
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About 20 patients from the Veterans Administration Medical Center are giving fly fishing a try. For most, this is a new experience.
“You get out here and you're in nature you're not thinking about it all the time, you know?" said Jason Hunt.
Hunt served two tours in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Jason says fly fishing is one way he copes with the post war nightmares he deals with nearly every day.
"I lost and I saw a lot of my really close friends get hurt really bad,” said Jason. "I tried crawling in a bottle. This is a lot better than doing that. It gives me a recreational activity besides sitting on a barstool all day."
Army vet Ronald Frazier is a resident at the Canandaigua VA. Frazier says fly fishing is a form of therapy to help him deal with some physical disabilities.
"It teaches me more about myself. Just how to have different coordination, how to use your talent and different skills,” said Ronald.
The fly fishing expedition is part of Project Fresh Waters. It was founded in 2005 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to assist in the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled military personnel. Project Fresh Waters is in its second year working with Trout Unlimited of Canandaigua.
"When we come out here, last year our first time, we had many of the other Trout
Unlimited folks say, 'what a great time i had working with these vets,' and it just makes you feel good,” said Brian Pietre of Trout Unlimited.
This is just one of a number of recreational activities the VA offers its patients. It gives the veterans an opportunity to get outdoors and try something new.
"We have different levels of care that we provide for them, right to the hands-on activities to activities such as this. We're starting kayaking. We have skiing in the winter, like you've seen, fly fishing today, and different activities for different levels,” said Hank Riegel, recreation activities supervisor.
The vets had no fish to show off as they posed for a group picture, but that didn't matter.
“It's something new, and when you're experiencing something new, there's an excitement,” said Ronald.