Project Healing Waters is a group that started in Washington D.C. (I know not much good starts there but this is different) that works with wounded returning soldiers that either fly fished before they were injured and want to adapt whatever injury they have and get back into fishing, or some that have never fly fished before and want to use fly-fishing, fly-tying or rod building for therapy. We have just formed the Ark-La-Tex Chapter, and I am on the board. I am organizing our first fund raising event in Longview. This will be a joint effort with the North Louisiana Fly Fishers (Shreveport) and East Texas Fly Fishers (Longview). All the proceeds go to Project Healing Waters. The clubs will keep none of the money raised, and all expenses will be covered by the clubs. I am calling it the �Ark La Tex Tie In�. It will be at the Gregg County Historical Museum on August 21 from 9am to 4pm. I am planning on having a fly swap between at least 13 tiers (a baker�s dozen) to have to raffle off. In addition, the Learning Center room will be filled with fly tiers from the region with additional flies as part of another raffle. Temple Fork Outfitters will give me a couple of their special �Project Healing Waters Rods� for the raffle and I hope to add to the list.
I have attached a link to the Project Healing Waters web page and a special youtube clip you have to see. Every time I watch it I am inspired and humbled. Every time I go fishing I take for granted what this guy struggles to accomplish.
Thanks again,
Mike Hawkins
www.projecthealingwaters.org



contact Mike Hawkins at mhawkins@rlacyinc.com
or 903.736.1887

Don't miss this event. Lots of tiers, lots of fun and for a great cause!

I plan to be there. Please be more specific about the fly swap though.

we have 20 tiers signed up we plan on mixing flies from the tiers and put them in the silent auction... in addition to that we have several other items for the silent auction and 4 rods that are part of the raffle.

Mike

I plan on being there if the creek don't rise!!!

So Mike, we are supposed to make flies for the swap? 20 flies or what, I am still not clear on it.

I gather it's for those "signed up"???

The guest tiers are going to supply the flies for the silent auction.

Uncle Larry

yeah, the twenty guest tiers supply flies, however, we will take donations from anyone...one individual is donating a rod, others boxes of flies. I have a painting, lunch for 4 at our local winery, furled leaders coming from Frank Schlicht of Texas Fly Fishers and other items for the silent auction. These items are in addition to the TFO rods and reels and Orvis rod.

Jerry if you would like to tie, I would love for you to take my spot, i will be busy with details anyway and might not get to sit that much. email me and i will put you on the list of tiers. much like the Caddo Conclave this is a first time event and i am flying by the seat of my pants, hope it is half as good as the conclave.

Mike

Mike,
Check your facebook messages!!!

I hope the new PHW chapter has a good turn out... this is for a terrific cause!

Let's bump this up for the day of the event. I wish I could be over in that part of the state this afternoon for this event...it will be too hot to fish for me this afternoon anyway and what a great cause to support.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale

Well I am gonna be there to see what I can glean from the tyers there.

http://news-journal.com/news/local/article_a8949e8f-01aa-5a10-abe3-382350709822.html

The Ark-La-Tex Tie In collected $3000.00 for Project Healing Waters, which I thought was absolutely fantastic! Mike Hawkins did a great job on this event, and he needs a big round of applause. Rick from Winchestor's donated an Orvis Hyrdros for the raffle, and there were TFO rods, and a Gander Mountain rod too. Larry from the Green Fly Trout Shop donated reels to go with the rods. I bought tickets and heavily put them in the Hyrdos box, and one of the other rod boxes mainly. This raffle was good cause it had a bucket for each prize, which I really liked. I learned a lot from the deer hair bug tiers, but I tried tying two yesterday, and I just couldn't pack that hair in like they easily did...lol. Anyway, it was a great event.

Kelly: I am happy that the event was successful and that you not only had a good time, but also did some learning. I noticed the article had a picture of Richard Blair. His wife Diane is one of the best teachers of deer hair work I have ever known. I hope you spent some time watching and learning from her. Events like this allow us to not only have a good time, but also do something worthwhile. Northeast Texas and Louisiana have some of the best fly tyers in the country and they like to get together to have a good time.

Mike has done a great service to the region during the past few months and I hope these events become yearly events we can all look forward to.

Have fun with this stuff.

Big Dale