Hello everyone – I am a founding member of a 501c3 nonprofit called Reeling In Serenity. We host all-expense-paid fly fishing retreats for people in active recovery from drugs and alcohol across the country. Typically these retreats include a quick casting lesson, what essentially amounts to a recovery meeting, and then a full day of trout fishing on the fly for those in recovery. We see all walks of life, some who are just 30 days sober, to those who may be 30 years sober, and a good mix of people who may have never held a fly rod before in their lives.
This year we've conducted a few retreats around the southeast, but my big project was extending our reach into Montana. I partnered with a great guest ranch (320 Guest Ranch) in Gallatin Gateway on the Gallatin river to secure a space for us to conduct a retreat. After that, for something like this far away from our home base in ATL, I typically try to secure a partnership with a recovery center to get participants. When we partner with recovery centers, we get a lot of people who are just coming off of traumatic experiences, maybe are having a hard time understanding what their sobriety looks like to them, and are in general a little more impacted by all that fly fishing can offer to someone looking to find peace in their recovery.
We had a great recovery center lined up, however due to some constraints around how they can transport their participants and what events they're legally able to offer, they've had to pull out a few weeks before the actual retreat. I have a couple of organic participants that have signed up through our website, but currently I'm looking for a few more people to come and join us on the day of – I thought it would be a good idea to spread the word on this subreddit and see if anyone had interest or knew of a friend/family member this might be a good experience for that may be local to the area.
Feel free to use our hyperlink up top to learn a bit more about us, or message me on here, or use the "Sign Up" button on the main page to sign up as a participant for the retreat! Thanks for reading, and if you think our mission is cool, we're currently hosting a silent auction with all sorts of rad stuff up for bid – even a trip to Patagonia + float and wade trips in 17 US states. None of our members take a paycheck, this auction is typically how we fund ourselves every year. Big love to this subreddit.
- IH
Posted by grizamaluke