It was my privilege to volunteer as a river helper at the 2026 Southern Oregon Casting for Recovery Retreat at the Big K Ranch near Elkton, OR last weekend. Casting for Recovery (CfR) is a retreat designed to help women in various stages of breast cancer enrich their lives through fly fishing. My wife is the retreat leader and needed one more river helper this year, so I gladly volunteered to help.
I’ve published posts throughout the years about this wonderful retreat helping 14 women during the weekend retreat. Here are a few highlights I’ll share from those posts:
Casting for Recovery’s mission is:
“…to enhance the quality of life of women with breast cancer through a unique retreat program that combines breast cancer education and peer support with the therapeutic sport of fly fishing. The program offers opportunities for women to find inspiration, discover renewed energy for life and experience healing connections with other women and nature. CfR serves women of all ages, in all stages of breast cancer treatment and recovery, at no cost to participants.”
Casting for Recovery website
CfR retreats hope women find:
- inspiration from other participants
- renewed energy for life
- experience healing connections with other women and nature
Fourteen women learned to tie knots, cast, and identify bugs on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is when they put their new-found skills to work and fish. That’s where river helpers come in. They show up on Sunday and are paired with one of the participants and fish for a couple of hours.
River helpers meet our new fly fisher and assist the women don their waders and boots. Next up is assembling the rod, stringing lines and tying a fly on the leader. It was a new experience for these women!
My goal as a river helper is to share my passion of fly fishing and pass along a few tips to shorten their learning curve. And hopefully, catch a couple fish! I was paired with Anneka and the fish gods were smiling upon us that day.
Look at those smiles! There were many other smiles around the pond that day too. Here is Aina along with her river helper, Jamie.
Below, Jerah is getting her fly changed out.
This is Andrea with her river helper, Jennifer.
The main lodge sits overlooking the pond where the women fished.
Low clouds and fog covered the valley in the early morning, but the sun burned it off about the time we began to fish.
The women lined up all around the pond’s shore.
Most of the women hooked up and several landed a smallmouth bass or perch. You could hear whoops and hollers as a fish was hooked. One fly fisher had a stellar day, landing 13 fish!
Looking around at the women, I could sense they were relaxed in this idyllic location.
I am in awe of their courage and happy to share my love of fly fishing with them. I hope in some small way I was able to help in their healing process. I hope they find ZEN in their own life journey.
The event wouldn’t happen without the volunteer staff and river helpers who show up on Sunday to help the women put their new skills to the test. Thanks to Joel, Jennifer, Kirsten, Jamie, Glenda, Dave, Tanya, Joe, Jan, Sue, Bob, Roger, and Matt.
Here are some of the volunteer CFR Staff: Kelli, Jennifer, Alysha, Kat, Denise, Holly, Kathy, Becca, and Kelly.
I was proud to support my wife who was the Retreat Leader. Here she is with Joel LaFollette, a long time supporter and owner of Royal Treatment Fly Shop in West Linn, OR
“We gathered an awesome group of women to experience nature, healing, fly fishing and the beauty of the Big K Ranch. Being back together was very powerful sharing stories of adventures and challenges. We wiped up spills and we wiped away tears. We took novices from gearing up in waders, tying knots, and casting to open water and fish on! There is always time for–—-one more cast.”
–Karen Kreft, Retreat Leader
I’m sure all the participants had a memorable weekend.
I continue to celebrate her journey as a breast cancer survivor and help wherever I can. She still proudly wears her pin.
If you or someone you know might be interested in attending one of these retreats, please go to the Casting for Recovery WEBSITE.
Lastly, here are other posts about CfR you’ll find on RiverKeeper Flies.
- 2023 Casting for Recovery Oregon North Retreat
- 2022 Casting for Recovery Oregon South Retreat
- 2019 Casting for Recovery Oregon South Retreat
- 2018 Casting for Recovery Retreat
- 2016 Casting for Recovery
- Casting for Recovery River Helper (2015)
- Casting for Recovery (2014)
Enjoy…go fish!
