TEXAS & OKLAHOMA NEWS

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1 TEXAS & OKLAHOMA NEWS Summer 2014 Participants, Volunteers and Friends of Reel Recovery 2014 is a year of growth for Texas & Oklahoma! Highlights We added two spring retreats this year; one in Glen Rose and one in Broken Bow. These three spring retreats served 38 courageous men from TX, OK and LA. Warren Wolf, founder of the Texas Reel Recovery Chapter, had the dream of bringing Reel Recovery to Oklahoma as well. Now, after less than a year of hosting the first retreat in Broken Bow, the Oklahoma Chapter is in good hands with Martin Weaver as their State Coordinator. Martin Weaver formally took the reins as the Oklahoma State Coordinator at our May Broken Bow, OK retreat. Marty is actively working to raise awareness, recruit participants & volunteers and secure a share of the Broken Bow retreat funding. Adding the new May retreat this year is evidence of his early success in Oklahoma. We embarked on our National program to have a medical coordinator on staff at each of our retreats. We continue to train future retreat staff to back up existing staff and to prepare for future growth like the new Houston area retreat scheduled for next year. Kyle Wright orchestrated another successful fund raiser at Chimy s on May 22 nd. Chimy s Fiesta added $10,000 in our retreat bucket. Our two fall retreats are in Broken Bow, October 5-7 and in Glen Rose October Both October retreats should be full, so we should end the year with well over 60 men served at our 5 retreats this year. To put this in perspective, we served 37 men at our 3 retreats We are growing to serve more men in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Texas and Oklahoma have entered the social media world with a Facebook page: Visit Facebook for Reel Recovery Oklahoma

2 Group pictures and commentary from our spring retreats follow on the next pages. Still Water Lodge, Glen Rose, TX April 11-13, 2014 Joshua Creek Ranch, Boerne, TX April 25-27,

3 Still Water Lodge, Glen Rose, TX April 11-13, 2014 We started 2014 with a full retreat, hosting14 men at Still Water Lodge in Glen Rose. The retreat was led by Les Jackson and Tyler Cloes. Rafe Hembre and Rick Wolf assisted with the fishing buddies and fishing activities. Marty Weaver received coordinator training for the two Oklahoma retreats. Our 17 volunteer fishing buddies did a superb job in putting the men at ease and helping them enjoy the weekend and fishing. We also had a couple of fishing buddies from Houston RR team to experience a retreat first hand. We fished at our good friend Jimmy G. s private tank for bass and many fine catfish. We also fished the Paluxy River and Trey N. took some men to his family tank nearby for some bass fishing.the highlight of our fishing was a catfish lunch on Saturday hosted by Jimmy and his family. What a treat! The Courageous Conversations among our participants were led by Dr. Marty Deschner, our facilitator. Still Water Lodge s new management team did a fine job hosting our retreat. This retreat was a wonderful beginning to the 2014 retreat season for the Texas & Oklahoma Chapter Joshua Creek Ranch, Boerne, TX April 25-27, 2014 We had 10 men at our Boerne retreat in April. The retreat was led by our Texas Reel Recovery veteran Rafael Torres and Dakus Geeslin. Fishing buddy coordinator Eduardo Valdez organized our 12 fishing buddy volunteers, including several from the Houston RR team. The fishing buddies did a superb job of making the men feel at ease and enjoy their weekend. Asher Reilly hosted the fishing buddy dinner Saturday evening. Ed Ramirez trained as a retreat coordinator. and Dave Steffek trained to coordinate the Houston retreat next year. Our facilitator, Bill Lotak ran our Courageous Conversations. Bill has graciously offered to be our facilitator for our Houston retreat. This was our 7 th year since our first Texas retreat Warren Wolf held here in the fall of Joshua Creek Ranch does a superb job of providing a relaxing environment for the men. The weather cooperated; fishing was good and food superb. Lakeview Lodge-Broken Bow, OK May 18-20, 2014 We started Reel Recovery s presence in Oklahoma with a bang in October 2013 at Broken Bow, OK with seed money from the Lower Mountain Fork River Foundation. We had fifteen participants, plenty of fishing buddies and a dedicated support staff. In May of this year we had our second retreat in from Oklahoma and northwest Louisiana. The weather cooperated a lot better than the 2013 October retreat, replacing rainy days with sunny skies and light winds. Thanks to the efforts of our fishing buddy coordinator, Jim Kelly, we had plenty of fishing buddies to make the May event a complete success. Without these dedicated volunteers the retreat could not have happened. We are recruiting fishing buddies for our upcoming October retreat and also for Our Oklahoma staff is growing. Robert Darnell, Director of Nursing at the Cancer Center of Southwest Oklahoma, volunteered to join our team in May as the medical coordinator and assisted several of our participants. Paul Lerchie, a participant at our first Oklahoma retreat, provided valuable help throughout the May retreat getting tasks done behind the scenes and making things happen. Broken Bow is a little challenging because Lakeview Lodge is several miles from the ample LMFR fishery. Dr. Martin Deschner, clinical psychologist, was our facilitator. He did is normal outstanding job of conducting the Courageous Conversations with the participants. If you are interested in being a fishing buddy, help in staffing one of the Oklahoma retreats as a retreat coordinator, facilitator or help with logistics and have not filled out a volunteer application, please go to and complete a volunteer application or contact Martin Weaver.

4 Lakeview Lodge-Broken Bow, OK May 18-20, 2014 We are confident the combined efforts of Texas and Oklahoma will have their 2015 retreat expense budget of $50,000 in place by the end of this year for all six scheduled retreats shown below. Both Texas and Oklahoma will be working hard the rest of this year and next year to find long term sustainable funding for our respective recurring retreats. In addition to solidifying long term support for our 6 retreats scheduled for next year, it is apparent there is need for more. This is based on the number of applications we received this year, particularly for our 2 October retreats. As a result, we have discussed adding two more retreats to the Oklahoma schedule as early as Our retreats stand on three legs; participants, volunteers, and funding. We have the resources for lodging and food caterers that are willing to support us. We believe with a concentrated effort we can recruit participants, fishing buddies and staff from Oklahoma, northwest Louisiana, and Texas. To even entertain the thought of adding 2 more retreats, Oklahoma will have to raise $15,000 in addition to the $15,000 required to sustain the two existing retreats beyond The Oklahoma team of volunteers and former participants are working hard to reach out to philanthropic organizations, corporations and others in our region. So, to make the 2015 schedule of four Oklahoma retreats a reality we will need to raise $15,000 now and be able to sustain a $30,000 budget in the future. If you know of someone, a philanthropic organization or an institution that would be willing to help with our retreat funding requirements please let us know. Hot off the press: We have a new opportunity to raise monies because of the generous managers at the Yukon and Lawton Chili s Restaurant. The individual restaurants will donate either 10% or 15% of their sales back to Reel Recovery Oklahoma. Customers just need to bring a copy of the flyer on our Reel Recovery Oklahoma Facebook page when they come to the restaurant to eat. Details of dates and times are on Facebook. Stay tuned to Facebook for more! Be well! Fish on! Martin Weaver, Oklahoma State Coordinator 4

5 The Texas & Oklahoma Chapter could not accomplish all we did in the first half of 2014 and what we will this fall without the generous financial support of so many entities and individuals and the steady support of our many volunteers who serve unselfishly as fishing buddies, retreat coordinators, fishing buddy coordinators, retreat facilitators, fund-raising support, website support and many other necessary jobs required to keep us on an even keel. Thank you one and all! 2 nd Half Fund Raisers to help support 2015 Retreats Chili s in Oklahoma As mentioned above, several Chili s locations in Oklahoma are donating a portion of a specified day s revenue to Reel Recovery. See the Oklahoma Facebook page for details and coupons. North Texas Giving Day September 18 th Texas Reel Recovery is participating in the North Texas Giving Day, sponsored by Communities Foundation of Texas. Funds raised on September 18 th will be earmarked for the two Glen Rose retreats. This is our first time to participate in this 18 hour on-line fund raising event. Please visit their website for details of how to contribute. Type in Reel Recovery in the organization box to go to our Giving Day page. Jon Henderson Memorial Classic October 3 rd - Jon Henderson Memorial Classic Sporting Clay event held at Alpine Shooting Range, Ft. Worth. This fund raiser was initiated by Jon Henderson in May of 2012, as his way of giving back to Reel Recovery. Jon attended our 2011 Boerne retreat. This event will help support our 2015 retreats. We need shooters, station sponsors, auction and raffle items and event day helpers. Visit our web site at to register and for more details. Contact our event coordinator, Les Jackson, at keebranch@sbcglobal.net or if you would like to help or have auction items. Looking Forward to 2015 Texas & Oklahoma have six retreats already on the books for 2015: Glen Rose, TX - April Broken Bow, OK September Boerne, TX - April Navasota, TX October 9-11 Broken Bow, OK - May 3-5 Glen Rose, TX - October Houston Retreat We are very excited to add a 4 th Texas retreat at Camp Allen near Navasota. This retreat is made possible through many Houston volunteers who are members of the Texas Fly Fishers Club. We are training the Houston Retreat staff/volunteers throughout 2014 and spring Financial support for this first retreat has come from the Texas Fly Fishers, Cameron International, other local organizations, and many generous individuals. This is a tremendous undertaking and a major step forward for the Texas Reel Recovery program. Kudos to the Houston Team and generous Houston area donors!

6 Opportunities: As we mature and grow we will need more volunteer help, perhaps regionally, such as: 1. Cancer Centers & Hospital liaison: Volunteers to introduce RR to new centers and to stay connected with centers where we have established relationships. We are not only recruiting participants but also seeking funding when it is available. There are still many areas of Texas, Oklahoma & Louisiana where we have not even begun to scratch the surface. A lot of help is needed here. 2. Event staffing: help staff tables/booths at various functions such as fly-fishing stores, community and civic events, fly fishing events (e.g. Conclaves, Troutfest, Octoberfisch) 3. Fill retreat staff positions: We need to retreat coordinators, volunteer coordinators, and facilitators to be ready for replacements, back-ups and future growth. 4. Fund-raising a. Our overarching goal should be to reach long term sustainable funding for our recurring retreats. b. Find and apply for corporate grants. c. Find other foundations such as the Communities Foundation of Texas and get on their radar. d. We would like to expand our event fundraising efforts beyond the DFW area. This is an ongoing task that requires lots of input and help. e. As mentioned above, Oklahoma has an appetite to serve more men by adding 2 more retreats. Martin and his team need lots of support to make this a reality. Please contact Mike or Martin if you can help in any way, have any questions or need further information about what we are trying accomplish. Reel Recovery wants to re-emphasize our deep appreciation to all our volunteers and friends for your support and help in various roles to allow the Texas and Oklahoma Chapters of Reel Recovery to continue to grow and serve more men coping with cancer. BE WELL! FISH ON! Michael Emerson Martin Weaver Texas State Coordinator Oklahoma State Coordinator mgemerson1944@gmail.com okieflier@att.net