- Offer a 2½ day retreat for 14 women per retreat, at no cost to participants.
- Provide fly-fishing instruction and breast cancer information in a setting that helps lessen isolation, providing a recreational activity with both physical and emotional benefits
- Help participants go forward optimistically with new knowledge and new friends
- Provide an experience that promotes coping and problem-solving skills
- Provide methods to gain self-esteem, network, make new friends, and learn new skills as a commitment to the future.
- Focus on wellness and empowerment rather than illness and helplessness
- Provide a forum to broaden understanding about breast cancer treatment and enable sharing among participants
A Casting for Recovery weekend is about empowerment Knowing little about fly fishing, women learn the basics while experiencing a spirit of trust and sharing that cannot be put into words.
Participating at your own comfort level, you will find new strength, joy, and confidence, leaving the retreat with a belief in your ability to master the challenges ahead.
The Casting for Recovery program has generated a wide circle of survivors whose new-found understanding and enthusiasm creates ripples outward in their communities, among their friends, families, and colleagues, helping improve the quality of their lives.
We provide an opportunity for women whose lives have been profoundly affected by the disease to gather in a natural setting and learn the sport of fly fishing. Just as importantly, the retreats offer an opportunity to meet new friends, network, exchange information, and have fun.
Our weekend retreats incorporate counseling, educational services, and the trained facilitators that staff each retreat, including a psycho-social therapist, a health care professional (e.g. physical therapist, nurse), as well as fly-fishing instructors and river helpers.
While the fundraising burden of offering healing retreats at no cost to participants and asking volunteers to run state programs is enormous, Casting for Recovery has inspired the generous and loyal support of donors large and small, and continues to believe in its mission of providing women with powerful tools for healing at no expense to them.