The Toledo City Paper depends on readers like you! Become a friend today. See membership options
A cancer diagnosis is not something anyone wants to hear. But yet it is news that too many people hear. Those diagnosed are faced with daunting challenges and seek support from family, friends, and the many nonprofits out there.
Casting for Recovery is just one of those organizations that provides hope and healing with a unique angle: healing and hope through fly fishing.
Casting Hope will bring its Fly Fishing Film Tour to the Maumee Indoor Theatre, 601 Conant St., Wednesday. Doors open at 6:30pm and the projector begins to roll at 7pm Tickets are $30 and participants are entered into a drawing for prizes.
The goal is to net some much-needed cash to keep two yearly fly fishing retreats free for women in any stage of breast cancer treatment and recovery, said Rod Frysinger, an avid fly fisherman who volunteers as a fishing guide for Casting for Recovery.
The film festival fundraiser offers plenty of movies but no long epics, he said.
“None of it is instructional movies,” he said. “Some of them are conservation stories, some of them are [about] human nature, human interaction stories.”
He said he’s been involved in the retreat in one way or another for about five years. Frysinger said he lost his parents and his wife to cancer in a timespan of 2 and a half years. His mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor.
Frysinger said he and his brother-in-law, Jamie Happ, have underwritten the event to make sure all profits go to the retreats, with the goal set at $3,000.
Retreats occur in June again in September in the Hocking Hills area. The fishing takes place on the last day. Medical staff is on hand.
Generally, Frysinger said, attendees are mostly newbies. He and other guides are there to help.
“I’d say about 98 percent of them have never touched a fly rod,” he said.
Still, many women leave with a passion for the sport, he said.
After all, it’s not always about catching dinner—it’s catch and release anyway—it’s the experience.
“It’s called fishing for a reason,” he said.
“The actual physicalness and movement of fly fishing helps with that recovery,” Frysinger said. And, “It’s simply being out in nature. I can attest to that … it takes so much of your concentration that you tend to push out everything else you’re dealing with in life.”
During the retreat, he said, “They talk through issues that they’re having, so there’s that kind of acknowledgement of their disease, and they can all share stories.”
He said fly fishing is a gentle but effective exercise for cancer fighters, especially for women who have undergone a mastectomy.
“It’s that movement of their upper body and arms,” Frysinger said. “The movement help keep blood flowing and help with recovery. There’s no weight to it. There’s no hard resistance.”
Frysinger said the event was set in October, Breast Cancer Awareness month. For just 31 days, the focus is on the terrible disease. Those diagnosed with it must focus on it for far longer.
To catch the event and release some much needed help, visit flyfilmtour.com for tickets.
