Marilyn Rogan, Fly Fishing, and Project Healing Waters

Jason & Mindy Hoover (00:00.098)

Hey, Nashvilleians, welcome to the You Matter Nashville podcast, the place where every story we share is a celebration of you, the heartbeat of our community. I'm Jason Hoover, delighted to be one half of your hosting duo. And I'm Mindy Hoover, joining you alongside Jason to bring the stories of inspiring individuals and unsung heroes making a positive impact right here in our hometown. Every episode is about passions, dreams and actions that stitch together the Middle Tennessee community. So if you're looking to get inspired by the good happening around us,

Or if you want to hear from the change makers who believe just like us that you matter, then hit that follow button on your favorite podcast platform. And if you are looking to make a move in the middle Tennessee area, Mindy and I are real estate professionals and would be honored to serve you with excellence. Now let's dive into another episode of You Matter Nashville. Welcome back to another great episode of You Matter Nashville. I'm your co -host, Jason Hoover. And I'm Mindy Hoover.

And on this podcast, we love to highlight people that are doing a positive impact in our community. And today's episode is about Project Healing Waters. And we have the very special guest, Marilyn Rogan, on here, who is a field advisory, who's on the field advisory committee, right? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Well,

You guys are doing some fantastic thing for veterans and even active military that have had some struggles. And so I didn't know anything about this until actually as a friend of ours, Kathy Mercer referred you to us because we were looking for people in the community that are doing things. that's the whole reason this podcast is that we want to shine a light. We want to bring awareness to things that you're doing. know, people like you that are doing great things that are volunteering.

pouring back into people. So Marilyn, thank you so very much for taking time to join us on this show today. Thank you for having me today. I'm always excited to talk about Project Healing Waters because for the past 15 years, it's been such a major part of what I do. I didn't expect to be spending this much time taking care of other people.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (02:14.813)

But that's what God put us here for. I said, okay, I'm all in. I will take the challenge. Well, I tell you what, so I've read over what you had shared with us and there, I always like to highlight what call out points and I was highlighting nearly everything on here that you wrote. So I was like, wow, how would we cover everything? So let's do this. Why don't you share a little bit about you and

I love your story here about growing up and adopting mountain children. Could you share some of that with our listeners? Sure. When I was in high school or just starting out in eighth grade, I had heard about a private Christian school up in the mountains of North Carolina. I had asked my family if I could go and they weren't sure they could afford the tuition.

I just said, well, there's got to be a way. And being pretty strong in the church, I went to the ladies group in the church and said, hey, I'd like to go here. I think I can get a scholarship. And so they thought about it and said, sure. So I started out my high school years in the Glade Valley, which was a Christian boarding school for males and females. So when I graduated,

went on to college and things like that. But I think the basics of what I learned there was that to take care of other people, to share what you have, you share your talents, whatever they might be, you never know what they are. And so one of the things we would do is that we would help all of the mountain children. There were so many of them that didn't have the things that we had. No shoes, no food, things of that nature.

So we would gather up supplies and things like that we would bring from home for Christmas and different occasions. So the giving part of that was, well, it's just hard to relate how much that does for you as a person, giving to other people and helping them out and watching the excitement on the kids' faces whenever they get their Christmas box with some toys in it that they would have never even seen before, much less gotten.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (04:44.415)

shoes, socks, underwear, those things we take for granted and they were just so thankful to get them. And so I guess that started me on, I guess my career of giving, if you want to call it that. I always have shared as much as I could. A lot of my family is that way. Most of them, I have an uncle who worked at a hospital. was used to going with him and

See, he'd always take those mountain children when they'd come into Winston -Salem Baptist Hospital and he'd say, well, we've got this little kid here who's never had shoes. He's 13. So we'd take him things at Christmas time. So that's kind of what got me on this road, I guess. It's hard to say what all did because there was a lot of factors there. Right, you know, and I just, think of like stories like Dolly, you know,

different people up in the mountains that people just don't realize the poverty level that I mean, that is still going on in that area of Eastern Kentucky and the Carolina isn't up in the mountains. And I know she talked about how important it was for that Christian charity that came in, that just helped everyone in their community. So I can't just can't imagine, you know, just being in the midst of that and seeing that need, you know, firsthand.

So you growing up in this really kind of nurtured and fed this. Well, it's a feeling and you and I both know, we all know that when you are helping people, to me, that's almost like a high, you can't get anywhere else. There's a love that grows in you that you can't get anywhere else. And you know, so growing up in that fostering

Here you are as an adult, you're still doing that. The way I found out about Project Keeling Waters with my husband was volunteering at the VA, driving the little van around to take the patients where they needed to go and things like that. And a guy approached him and gave him a brochure from Project Keeling Waters Fly Fishing. And he brought it home and he wanted me to go. And I said, well, I don't know what this is all about. But anyway, I went to a meeting with him and

Jason & Mindy Hoover (06:59.585)

We were in the meeting and I was watching the veterans. I have to take a deep breath because what I saw there was people really needed help. And it was a program that was really helping them with their issues. And you wouldn't think fly fishing would help anybody, you know, except for the joy of fishing. But there is just so much more that goes on when we're...

in these meetings and taking the people fishing and things like that, then you can never imagine. It's just, people don't realize how many veterans first off we have in Tennessee. That's one thing that they really never think about. We've got over 400 ,000 veterans in Tennessee, which is about 7 % of our population. And so a lot of people don't connect with the military people, the veterans.

because most of them are just walking around looking just like you and I. You never think they have a problem and you don't realize that their family life may be falling apart. The drug and the alcohol and things of that nature that are going on with them is not as readily apparent to the average person. So that's why this program is so great.

It was started by a veteran back in 2005, so it's been around a good deal, you know, good while. I've been with them most of that time and we've gone through a lot of things with the veterans learning ourselves. We work on strictly volunteers and donations and that's it. And so one of my things is get out, raise money. I seem to like

as well as helping the veterans, because I know that I'm going to use it well, buy nice new fly rods for them and waders and things like that, because everything in the program is free to the veteran. They don't have to pay for anything. And so when I talk about the veterans in the program, you get some in there that are still able to go out and get a job, but a lot of them you get that just can't cope with life.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (09:24.781)

There's depression. There's feeling like when they get back, they've been on such a high when they're out there, you know, in combat and things like that, that takes a lot of adrenaline and then you get back home and everything just lets down and there's nothing going on in their life. They don't know which way to go. And so the VA helps a lot. I get a good deal of my people from the VA.

some from the community, some from other veterans organizations. So when I get a new vet in, a good example is a lady that came into the program about three years ago. It is a journey of healing. It's not something that happens overnight. It takes a considerable amount of patience on the volunteer's parts and listening and feeling where they are and where we need to take them.

She was ready to commit suicide and we get a lot of that. Not as much as we used to, but we still have a lot of occasions for people wanting to commit suicide. And her husband was ready to leave her. He said, I'm so frustrated with trying to deal with her. I can't get her to do anything. He just, she looked just perfectly normal when she walked in. you basically, you take that person by the hand, you will talk to them, you'll listen,

You don't ask questions because once you start asking, then they'll back off and they'll go away. You just wait for them to feel comfortable to talk to you. And being a woman in my case, that was easy for that person telling me about what happened in her history with the military.

Unfortunately for her, she was raped several times while in the military, which is the MST, as we call it, military sexual trauma. We get that from males and females. So that is something that once they open up and share their story, and that's usually done from where on the water fishing, because if you're out there and there's a fine mist coming over the water early in the morning and you

Jason & Mindy Hoover (11:46.657)

have that peace and quiet in nature and you've got a fly rod in your hand, you hope you catch a fish, but that person feels relaxed enough to disclose or to tell their story. And once they get that story out and it's been told to somebody, that's not going to criticize them, that's not going to say, hey, I know what you're talking about and all that because I have no clue. I just say, I'm here for you. I can help

And that's what we do. We just offer a helping hand. We are not criticizing or saying we've been there or anything like that. We just say, okay, we're here for you. We'll help you any way we can. And when you've got them on the water like that, I put one vet with, excuse me, one volunteer with two vets, because sometimes we, more often than not, we have

balance issues with them, they can't keep their balance. So we provide working staffs for them. They can't, a lot of times their hands are trembling so bad they can't put the fly on the line. So we're there to put the flies on to help them know which ones to use, that type of thing, help them cast. If they have, are an amputee, we have special adaptive equipment.

that we can show them how they can fish with just one arm and no hand. We provide whatever they need, be it waders, fly rods, flocking staffs. If they're missing limbs, adaptive equipment we have. We've got probably one of our best fishermen up north in our program who has learned to fish with no hand, and he just is excited about how he can do that.

We're going to get him to teach us some of the rest of us so we can show our group. all of these things are what... Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. That is amazing that you can do it with, especially with fly fishing, because we always think, you you have to have two hands to fly fish. Yeah, right. Because you've got to strip the line with one and hold the rod with the other normally. So it's amazing what they can do.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (14:11.021)

That gives them the encouragement to go ahead and live life. Once they come out of that a lot, the lady, for example, I said, has been in the program three years, because we don't kick them out. They can leave whenever they like. But as long as they want to stay in the program, I've got one guy who's been in the program as long as I've been in the program, 15 years. And he'll tell you, he says, if I leave the program, he said, I feel I'm lost.

It's created family for him in that sense. You know, and it's just been a blessing for so many of these vets and that as a nation, we're finally starting to talk about mental health and thank goodness. Yeah. And mental health, you know, concerning our vets because, you know, here they go, they sacrifice, you know, their livelihoods, everything. and, and they come back wounded, broken.

A lot of the wings is metal you can't even see. Right, exactly. It is hard for them to deal with and it depends on whether they're a combat veteran or they're one that is a support team. A lot of people think that those people, everybody went to combat and everybody you know has all of this PTSD and all of this. We still have PTSD with those that didn't go in combat.

those that were cooks or administrative type people and things like that, because they're still there. They're still experiencing the trauma of seeing somebody that they sent out to do a job out here in Afghanistan or someplace and that person didn't come back. I mean, that's still traumatic. And so those people, they have problems as well, even

it wasn't a combat issue. I have one gentleman in the program that was a sniper and he was in a bell tower and having to shoot people and you think that it's something like you see in the movies but this is real life for these guys and when they have to shoot someone and a child walks in front of it and gets killed instead then how do you ever get over that?

Jason & Mindy Hoover (16:35.885)

You don't get over that. That's why this is a journey of life that we're trying to do here and not trying to push a person into, you've been through this program, you got healed and you're out. No, you never get healed from that. That haunts you the whole life that you have. Now you guys work with people locally and everything around Murphy's Borough and you have places actually all over Tennessee.

But you guys also sent people on retreats. I know you had spoke about sending them to retreat up in Michigan. I would love to hear about these retreats and what makes it different than what you guys do locally. Well, basically what we do is we have two classes a month in the programs nationwide. In our particular program, we do one in the morning and one in the evening. So that's where we teach them.

basics of casting fly fit. We teach them to tie their own flies, to build their own fly rods, things of that nature. You talk about someone getting excited when they build that first fly rod and they catch that first fish on their own fly rod they get really excited. But we do monthly outings as we call them where we just go locally to the Duck River, Elk or wherever and we do little cookouts and things.

And they get a chance last Saturday, we had 22 at the Duck River, all fishing and all caught fish. So they get really excited when everybody catches fish. So those outings really helped them get a chance to build a bond between the other veterans that are in the same situation they are. They get to share stories and do that. But Project Healing Waters, fly fishing as national, does national outings.

where we have two lodges that have been donated to us. We're very blessed. The first one is Freedom Ranch out in Montana. So we will fly 10 veterans every week starting the 1st of May through the middle of October. And we will fly them to Freedom Ranch in Montana. All expenses paid for everything. All their equipment is there. We have

Jason & Mindy Hoover (18:59.499)

professional guides that we pay that take them out. And the difference it makes in that veteran's life when they come back and tell their story of their experience for that week is just phenomenal. It'll make you cry. Always makes me cry. We've been blessed to get a second lodge this year up in Michigan. It's called Oak Cart Lodge. And so I will be going up there in June for the first time.

see how that lodge is, but everybody is talking about how great it is to get steelhead trout and all of that. But so I'm looking forward to that. But these national trips, all total, we'll probably have 600 vet school on those this summer. That's amazing. May through October. And that's just middle Tennessee, right? Well, that's nationwide. Nationwide.

But from Middle Tennessee, what we do is we do it by percentages of population in the programs. And so we take 10 of them up in Freedom Ranch. They will go in July, I think, from Middle Tennessee. My group, I've had one group already from my program go. They went in May. I know Cedric, the guy

over towards Jackson came back. That was the most excited man I've ever seen. I mean, he just was, he said, you just won't believe how great it was, how many fish I caught. And he has a service dog that went with him, Bo. And we do take the service dogs if they have them and we pay for them on the plane and everything. The other exciting things that we do

contest that we have for casting and fly tying and things like that and they get Orvis is kind enough to give them gift certificates. So what we do is we've just had a great fundraiser with the Orvis store here in Green Hills and they have told me we will be doing the photo op I think next Tuesday that we raised over $6 ,000 for the Murfreesboro program. That's amazing. Which will help us out greatly.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (21:22.221)

because we did, I normally try to do at least two programs or two outings that I take 10 from my program. I did in February, at the end of February, I chose as late as I could, we went to the South Holston River Lodge and those guys were, mean, they just had a great time. At all these places we have a chef that makes their special food if they need it or whatever. The food is great.

The lodgings are always great. And this is just what helps the healing. They look forward to the fishing trips. They look forward to those types of things. But it's really just being able to sit down after everything and talk to other guys and gals about what went on. Because we do special ladies trips. We give the ladies a week all by themselves on these trips too.

No intimidation. Just the women going. I love that. Well, there is something healing about just being outdoors. I we had spoke about that on the phone. There's just something about, you know, when you had a bad day even, just going outside. I know our backyard is our sanctuary and just getting out and blowing off steam, guess. you know, unplugging.

And, when you were talking about the mist coming off the, water, I mean, that took me back to, remember a camping trip that me, my father, my brother went, on the little red river in Arkansas and getting up early and, fishing, fly fishing. And I still remember, you know, just the peace, you know, it was so peaceful. quiet, the quiet. And, you know, I was a little kid and I still was

in all of it. So I can definitely understand just how healing it is. Yeah. Well, we've been able to have some studies done through the VA and plus we're working on a private study now called Mindset that we evaluate the results of what we do, which a lot of programs don't do that because they just, you know,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (23:45.163)

This way we have a better idea of the direction we're going in, if we're serving them, giving them all that we can give them, and making sure that you can send somebody on a trip, but if it doesn't do them any good, there's no need to send them on a trip. So we want to make sure that everything that we're doing is benefiting that veteran to the ultimate degree that we can. And so I award Project Heating and Waters Fly Fishing for that.

So also our headquarters has moved from Maryland to Colorado, by the way. And so there will be a lot of fishing trips out in Colorado. man, that's beautiful. Yes. And I guess that just makes a lot more sense to be, you know, over in Colorado. A lot more rivers to be fishing at. Right. The fishing is pretty good out there. Now, the was the one here in Murfreesboro already started when you came? Yes.

Yes, it was. had not been started that long. Project Healing Waters has only been in existence since 2005. It was started up at Walter Reed Hospital by a veteran. And so that's kind of how it got started. So and I came in about 2009. So I've been around for a little bit. You've watched it grow.

Yes, and watched it grow and helped him as much as we can. We have eight programs here in Tennessee. We have Johnson City, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, Nashville, and Clarksville, and Memphis. So usually if there's a VA facility, we try to connect in with those. So there's plenty of opportunity for people who

wherever they live in Tennessee as a veteran just about to get to them. I have some that do travel a little bit, but we try not to have them travel as very far as we can. Well, and I'm curious, Marilyn, how has this impacted your life being a part of this for 15 years? Well, my husband is a disabled veteran. He served 24 years. He's 24 years retired Navy. And even though he was on a

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the traumas that he went through, I never thought of it really having an effect on him. mean, I heard him tell me that, when the ship rolled almost as far as it could roll before going completely under and a, typhoon, that that would make a difference. But you know, you stop, think about it. That is pretty traumatic. I think the,

most serious thing though is his three tours in Vietnam. Even though he was on a ship, he was only 100 yards offshore. And he was in charge of what they call fire control, which meant that he actually shot the guns that went in and those big guns and they would blow up people. so you wouldn't think that would matter because he couldn't see it,

He knew in his mind he could visualize that it was blowing up women and children, like families he was leaving at home. And so that's the type of thing that haunts him the most, I think. We can't imagine the, you know, processing that over the years, because it, you like you said earlier, you know, it doesn't go away. Right. And he's 81 now and getting at the end of the

Vietnam age and so he he still talks about it. That's why we have these meetings and we give them plenty of time to talk about things with each other, not so much with us as volunteers because like myself, I've never been to combat or anything. So I don't have that. But some of my volunteers are veterans, but a lot of them

They're just good fly fishermen. So they want to share that. My volunteers are great people. They feel for these people when their hearts. So that's what I look for first. If your heart's right, then you can volunteer. If you can't fly fish, I'll teach you. But most of ours are good fly fishermen and excellent. We get good support

Jason & Mindy Hoover (28:29.293)

middle Tennessee flatfishers in Nashville, for example, they send us guides when we're doing these outings. Usually I do every year a big event called the Caney Fork Outing. Been doing that for 15 years and I will get Nashville and Murfreesboro together and we will camp out all weekend.

I usually have somewhere around 75 to 80. That's a lot to cook for all weekend. Everything is free to them. The Corps of Engineers gives me the campground at Long Branch Free for the vets, which we greatly appreciate. Our community helps us a lot. Can't say enough about our community and how much it helps. People donate.

the food for the event and people donate the campsites and everything and the people come up. We have a program for them. We have a fish fry on Saturday night and all the meals are prepared and great cooks. They've been volunteering for who knows all 15 years, of them. But it is exciting to be able to help people the way that this program helps people.

The veterans are good people. They're just really great people to know. The military has a responsibility. This is the way they're trained. They feel they have a responsibility for everything that's in their lives, you know, and so they want to be responsible. That's not something that they want to give up when they get back.

How could our listeners help support or get involved?

Jason & Mindy Hoover (30:27.559)

We're always looking for good volunteers, especially if they can fly fish, tie flies or whatever. we so we have a few administrative things they can do if somebody is good on a computer. Now, that's one way. Of course, donations, we're always looking for donations, be they small or large, it doesn't matter. If they have lakes and ponds or anything that different that we could go fishing in.

We don't mind fishing in ponds. fish for bass. We can fish for anything with the fly rod. Let me tell you, I fished saltwater, whatever. Saltwater, really? Yeah. Oh yeah. We, you know, I've taken the group. I took, it's a long ride to Marathon, Florida on a bus, but I took 50 of them down on a bus trip. Somebody donated the transportation and I have a fellow down there that set it

for the food and lodging, took them to Marathon, Florida, we fished for, went deep sea fishing in boats and caught sharks and all kinds of things. That was quite an experience. Okay. I'm showing my ignorance here. I didn't know you could do that with fly fishing. Yes, I caught a nurse shark.

Of course it didn't, the fly rod didn't last long, but couldn't get it in the boat. It was too big. But, you know, it's just anywhere we can get them out and get them outside and little cookouts and things like that. Some people sponsor those for us and they'll provide the food and come along and they enjoy watching it. I had a guy visit from Colorado, just said,

I know a little bit about the program, want to see what y 'all do. We put it together real quick and a little outing and he was just so impressed. He made a nice donation. Not that that's what we were expecting necessarily, but that's just, that's what always seems to happen. And I never know where or when things are going to happen. I leave that up to God. He's provided us well in this program. It always seems to come out. We're working on raising money for

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another trip to the South Holston River Lodge in February of next year because they enjoyed that so much. And next year, one of our big outings will be the Canny Fork Outing, which if we can raise the money, it normally takes me somewhere around 10 ,000 to feed and everything if I'm gonna do a lot of fancy little stuff for them, but. And prices keep going up, so. Yeah, it does, food and everything. I mean, it's hard to tell,

That's a good estimate if I don't get it donated. of course, when I say it costs that much, that is with donations of food and things like that. It's not that we pay for that outright. So that's why I say the community is always so good. They just, they really are supportive of us. So how could they donate? Who do they contact or where do they go? Well, they can contact me, Marilyn Rogan, and my phone number is 615.

207 -6765 and I can get them directed depending on what they want to donate or whether they want to volunteer or whatever. Or they can go on our national website which is www .projecthealingwaters .org and there's little buttons they can click on to donate there. Of course if they're wanting to volunteer

They can contact me here if they live in any of these areas where we have programs, they can still contact me because I can get them directed to any program in the state because I've done everything in this whole pro in this whole organization from one time or another. I basically retired from being program lead this year to move up to the corporate level a little bit and help them out. But

So I know almost everybody can get them wherever they need to go. One stop shop. One stop shop, right. They don't have to worry about a whole lot of numbers or anything else. And I'm always welcome people because this would probably be the most rewarding thing you've ever done if you do it with your heart right, that's for sure. Amen to that. Marilyn, I just want to say I...

Jason & Mindy Hoover (35:06.721)

Just have just thoroughly enjoyed having you here today and talking to us about healing waters. I have really loved hearing about the one -on -one working with vets, you know, just creating a healing atmosphere for them. And we just can't talk enough about, you know, the importance of healing and mental health, especially with our nation's vet. So thank you so much for everything that you are doing and being a part of this organization for as long as you have.

Yeah. And the, just the impact that you're, you've been making, mean, selfishly that you've been doing for all these years. you know, cause everybody knows of that. you know, even my dad, was a, you know, he served over in Okinawa, was one of the main places that, he was stationed at. And he was in the air force. he recently passed away, last Christmas Eve. So, we had, you know, at his funeral.

you know, they came and presented my mom with the flag and everything. I'm starting to choke up. and just that honor, you know, that you see that they honor your vets. It's amazing. So you sharing, you know, how they always give back and support the veterans, really was touching, to

And I thank you. I thank you so much. There are so many people out there that need that help that don't even know where to turn. And I am appreciative of people like you that are making a difference. And, you know, when you're talking about that one lady contemplating suicide, yeah, I started I started tearing up because suicide is it to know somebody gets into such a dark, dark

place that they see no way out. But someone like you in this program comes along and saves them. To me, that's the love of God. That's what living is about. It's not about the stuff. It's about the impact that we make. We're here. We love. we need to embrace more people. So thank you so much, Marilyn.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (37:28.749)

it's been an honor to have you on. I will appreciate that very much. appreciate the opportunity to share our program. All of the volunteers that we have, which are a lot in our state and in our program, we did 73 ,000 hours of volunteer last year in Project Canyon Waters for our veterans. so we really do care about them and I welcome anyone.

that wants to join the program. Just give me a call. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, thank you everybody for tuning in and listening. If you want more information or you want to donate or volunteer or you just want to talk to this lovely lady, Marilyn, give her a call at 615 -207 -6765. She also has an email.

address, maryland .rogan at projecthealingwaters .org. We'll definitely put that in the show notes for everybody. You can also visit the main website, which is projecthealingwaters .org. But thank you again, everybody, for listening and tuning in. Always a pleasure to have people on like Marilyn.

And if you know anybody that's making an impact in our community, please let us know. We definitely want to invite them on the show and hear their story and just share with the community of what they are doing and how they're making our community even better. You know, that positive impact. We can't get enough of that. And just remember that everybody here matters. You matter. I matter. We all matter. Thank y 'all for listening until next time.

And that brings us to the end of another episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope today's show has left you feeling as uplifted and inspired as we are. Remember, the spirit of Nashville lives in all of us and every small act of kindness echoes throughout the community. A huge thank you for listening and even being a part of our You Matter community. If you love this episode, please share with friends and leave us a five -star review. It helps us reach more listeners and spread the love. And if you know anyone that is looking to make a move to Middle Tennessee area,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (39:51.457)

We are real estate professionals known as the Hoover Team, and we would be honored to serve them with excellence. Until next time, keep making a difference, Nashville. You matter more than you