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Television is a powerful
medium.
Done well, it has the
ability to entertain, educate and on occasion
appeal to the better
angels of our nature.
Mike Geary wouldn’t
disagree. A few years back, on the road
for his job, he was watching a sports program
on HBO about Disabled Sports USA, a nonprofit
group started in the Vietnam era that helps wounded U.S. veterans assimilate
back into society through sporting events and various outdoor activities.
What Geary saw on television
-- severely injured veterans from the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan -- moved him to act. “I was riveted by
it,” he
said. “It
inspired me. I knew I had to do something for our wounded vets.”
Through
the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project, a partnership between
the Wounded Warrior Project and Disabled Sports
USA, Geary, owner of
Lewis and Clark
Expeditions in Helena, Montana, offered his services as a fly fishing
guide. More specifically, he offered a four-day wilderness fishing
trip for any
wounded soldier who wanted to attend.
Last May, Geary got his
wish. Four disabled servicemen, one physical
therapist
from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and
five of his guides
spent four
days fly fishing the Smith River, a blue-ribbon trout stream 100
miles east of
Helena.
“For many of these
wounded veterans, they have an emotional bridge
to cross,” said
Geary, who has been in the guiding business for 25 years. “Some
feel alienated after sustaining such life-altering injuries. They
were injured in the prime
of their athletic lives, now they have to make major adjustments.
They’ve
been dealt a difficult hand, and I felt a trip like this could
help them.”
The Wounded Warrior Disabled
Sports Project provides year-around sports
programs, including fishing trips,
sporting clays outings,
canoeing
adventures and
much more, to severely wounded soldiers, airmen and marines
who were injured fighting
the war on terrorism.
The nonprofit program
receives no federal dollars. The outings --
everything from airfare
to food to lodging to equipment
-- are underwritten
through
individual donations and with grant monies secured through
various foundations, said Kathy
Celo, operations service manager with Disabled Sports USA. “It
breaks your heart to see a soldier who is a double or triple
amputee,” she said. “Still,
we know these activities, whether it’s fishing or downhill
skiing, can help them rebuild their self-esteem and assimilate
back into society. It teaches
them that they don’t have to have any limitations.”
Said Geary: “One of the things I noticed on our trip
was how well trained these soldiers are. They have the fortitude
and courage to get through their
injuries. I’m telling you, they all have can-do attitudes.
It’s inspiring
to see up close.”
Geary said he was also
amazed by how well the wounded soldiers, one
of whom had lost both of his
legs, picked up the sport
of fly fishing,
and
how they
had no
reluctance to help with the heavy labor of a wilderness
fishing trip.
“Let’s just say they weren’t like my typical customers,” said
Geary. “They picked up the fly fishing exceptionally well. None of them
had done it before in their lives. But in four days they went from novices to
intermediate-skilled fly anglers. One of the biggest surprises of the trip for
me was how their disabilities just dissolved. After a while, I didn’t even
know they were injured. The trip was a life-changing experience for me and my
guides.”
When Geary started planning last year’s trip, he
knew funding would be the biggest hurdle. Geary sent
an email to his regular customers, telling them
what he was planning. “My customers just stepped
up,” he said. “They
delivered the money. They wanted to help, too.”
Geary
is once again planning another wilderness fly fishing
trip down the Smith River. It will happen in early
May. Calling from
his cell
phone in
Seattle, Washington,
after a fundraiser for this year’s trip, Geary
said he collected $5,000.00. He was very pleased, saying
he has room for every wounded vet who is interested
in learning how to fly fish. “The thing is, no
one has really asked any of us not associated with
the military to sacrifice while we’re fighting
this global war,” he said. “We need to
sacrifice. It’s our
duty. And what I’m finding out is that all you
have to do is ask.”
On the battlefields of
Iraq and Afghanistan, American servicemen and
women are
risking their lives and limbs
every second
of every day.
To walk in
their boots,
I suspect, is to live in a perpetual state of fear.
Still, they do their duty to preserve our freedoms
here at home.
Geary is
right. We need to
sacrifice. And I can’t think of a more worthwhile
cause than the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project.
If you’d like to help, send your tax-deductible
contribution (made payable to Disabled Sports USA)
to: 451 Hungerford Drive, Suite 100, Rockville MD
20850.
Please mark your check “Soldier Fund/Smith
River Montana,” if you’d
like to contribute to that particular outing. For
more information: www.dsusa.org.
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