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Fayette County's Ken Griffin Founds
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Griffin is in the process of founding a program called “Flyfishing For Vets – A Family Experience.” The project will bring wounded soldiers and their families to the area for a retreat that will offer a break from the stress involved with the physical and emotional healing process they are going through.
Griffin presented a program on Flyfishing for Vets at the Blue Ridge Mountain Trout Unlimited chapter’s November meeting, which appropriately was on the day before Veterans Day – November 11. The local Trout Unlimited chapter has members in Pickens, Gilmer and Fannin counties along with those from other areas who are interested in coldwater conservation in this region. (Visit the chapter’s website at http://blueridgemountaintuonline.com/ for more information.)
Griffin retired after a distinguished military career and entered the private sector as a successful businessman for a period. He said, “I was enjoying the success and the money, but I wasn’t really feeling much satisfaction with what I was doing. That’s when I began thinking about doing something for our disabled veterans and I decided what was right for me was to put aside everything else and begin working on this project full time.”
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Griffin , who has a handicapped child, has organized several very successful recreational programs for handicapped youth, so he has experience in this area. He said there are already programs -- such as Wounded Warriors and Project Healing Waters -- in existence that are similar to the program he envisions for handicapped veterans, but he said these are not reaching many deserving Georgia servicemen.
Griffin said due to the nature of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , thousands of young soldiers and Marines are returning home with severe injuries. He said more than 800 Georgia Army and Marine personnel are recovering from their serious wounds. He said, “In this area of the country, nobody is doing anything for our guys and we need to do it.”
The idea of using flyfishing as the basis for a program offering a little down time for the recovering veterans came to Griffin while he was on a North Georgia stream angling for trout with old Army buddy Mike Maginn who lives here. Griffin said, “I was pretty much occupied with trying to catch a fish but then I began to look around me – at the calming flow of the water, the red and yellow leaves, the serenity of the mountains . . . the whole experience. And I thought what a peaceful place this is. And if I feel this way, imagine what it would mean to a wounded soldier who has been in the war and is now going through the life changing experience of adjusting to a handicap.”
Mike Maginn is the new president of the Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited and has agreed to serve as Flyfishing for Vets’ local contact person. Maginn said, “I’m willing to get involved with this program because I know Ken and I know if anybody can make this thing work, he can.”
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Griffin believes the “A Family Experience” part of the program is extremely important. He said the spouse is often under even more stress than the wounded soldier – which in Iraq and Afghanistan in many instances is a woman because females are out there with the guys driving trucks and going on missions. He said while the program will get the veteran out on the river for a much needed break, he plans to offer the spouse a break too. He said, “They really need some time by themselves, away from their wounded spouse and the kids, where they can totally relax. These spouses have suddenly had head-of-household and chief bread-winner status thrust upon them along with becoming the primary care-giver. You talk about stress – there it is.”
At present Griffin has decided on two destinations for Flyfishing for Vets: Callaway Gardens and the Blue Ridge area. He said the fishing program at Callaway Gardens has been very receptive and that venue offers all needed amenities in one package – the fishing for the veteran, activities for the spouse and children, lodging, dining, etc.
Blue Ridge is a little more challenging in that everything is not available “under one roof” and Griffin was beginning to make arrangements here during his visit in early November. Besides fishing opportunities, he had looked into “getaway opportunities” for spouses and received an excellent reception, he said, at the Comfort Inn in Blue Ridge which in addition to lodging offers spa facilities and also at Serenity in the Mountains, a world-class spa in Blue Ridge .
“Right now, along with the fishing, lodging and transportation options, I’m really in need of ideas for activities for the children, something they can do while dad’s flyfishing and mom’s at the spa. I want the community involved in this program and I need their suggestions to make this program work,” Griffin said.
Griffin believes the program will be ready for the first visits to the North Georgia by next March, give or take a few weeks. Presently he’s involved with the mundane organizational tasks like getting the group’s 501(3) (C) non-profit status approved, having office supplies printed, developing a website, meeting with “moral welfare officers” at Forts Benning, Stewart, MacPhearson and others, and securing cooperation of various offices within the Veterans Administration.
Blue Ridge TU member George Andrin, who was dressed in his DAV uniform for a Veterans Day program later that morning, said he believes Griffin will receive great support from the local veterans organizations in which he is active and the people in North Georgia in general, but, from his own experience, he said the bureaucracy at the Veterans Administration often proves exasperating. Its not that the VA is not responsive to veterans’ needs, Andrin said, it’s just that there are so many levels to the bureaucracy that ever talking to the right person can become awfully frustrating. Griffin , himself a disabled veteran, said he was quite familiar with the VA and agreed with what Andrin was saying. For that reason, Griffin is calling on some contacts he has in the Pentagon. He said, “I’m going to be coming from the top down.”
Chapter member Juanita Littleton summed up the sentiments of the Blue Ridge Mountain Trout Unlimited group, and for that matter, many Americans, when she told Griffin, “Everyone wants to do something to show our appreciation to these wounded servicemen and women, but we often don’t know what to do or how to do it. This program [Flyfishing for Vets] will give us the opportunity do just that.”
Griffin hopes to have Flyfishing for Vets website up and running soon where interested parties can learn more about the program, make financial donations to help support it and offer suggestions on activities for the vets, their spouses and children. He will also be keeping the local TU group informed about the program’s progress. In the meantime, Griffin can be reached via email at kengriffin@flyfishingforvets.com.By John R. Pool
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