My Friend

I thought I’d better get fully up to speed regarding the latest happenings at Project Healing Waters this evening, so I logged onto their site’s homepage, and what do I see but a story about one of my favorite people on the planet.

Back in March of ‘09, before I was even aware of Project Healing Waters, I weaseled my way into a fishing trip with my boss and his son to Big Cedar Creek up in Virginia.  As we were walking upstream we passed some folks fishing along one of the prettier stretches of the creek.  There was a guy fishing from a wheelchair and there was a film crew recording the action.  I thought no more about it as we went on our way.  Little did I know that the guy in the wheelchair and the guy supervising the filming would have such an impact on my life.

The guy in the wheel chair was John Bass, and the fellow doing the filming was Curtis Fleming.  Regular readers of this blog know them well, and I have been honored to know them even better.  In fact, just last week I encouraged everyone to vote for Curtis and his show Fly Rod Chronicles for the Sportsman Channel awards, and the week before that, my posting entitled “Thanks” talked a lot about John.

But this isn’t about my friend Curtis, it’s about John.  John Bass has just received the Patriot Award, Project Healing Waters’ highest honor, for his sustained support of PHW’s mission and activities, and no one – I mean no one – is more deserving.  Congratulations John!

Here’s a link to the story… http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/html/announcements/bass.html

Check out the smile on John’s face as our leader, Ed Nicholson, makes the presentation.  I have rarely seen John without that same smile…especially when one of the vets he has introduced our sport to is landing a big one.