There is a certain kind of quiet that only exists on the water. The current flows, the line follows, and for a moment, everything else has to fall away. Fly fishing asks for patience. It asks for focus. It rewards presence, not force.
For many veterans, that kind of space can mean something far deeper than recreation. It can become a place to reconnect with themselves, with others, and with a rhythm that feels steady again. That is the work at the heart of Project Healing Waters.
Project Healing Waters
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing was founded in 2005 by Ed Nicholson, a retired Navy Captain, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where service members were returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. What began as a small program for wounded soldiers has grown into one of the most far-reaching veteran support organizations in the country.
Today, Project Healing Waters operates 158 chapters across 45 states, serving 8,800 active veteran participants each year. Since 2012, nearly 70,000 veterans have come through the program. The mission has remained unchanged from the beginning: healing America's veterans through the therapeutic art of fly fishing.
The program works through a combination of fly fishing instruction, fly tying, rod building, outings, mentorship, and community. Veterans participate at no cost, guided by trained volunteers who understand that what happens on the water is about far more than catching fish.
How Fly Fishing Heals
Fly fishing is a practice of attention. It asks participants to slow down, read the water, cast with intention, and stay connected to the moment. For veterans navigating pain, transition, isolation, or the long process of healing, that focus can create a rare kind of relief.
For Cameron Cushman, U.S. Army Ret., the water became a place to push back against a future others had defined for him. After being told he would never return to a normal life, he chose a different path. On the Devils River in Texas, he found "a sense of peace, a relief from the physical and mental pain, a place where nothing mattered but my focus on the water." Nearly ten years later, that sense of peace still holds.
More Than Time on the Water
Project Healing Waters is built around what happens between casts. The conversations that form naturally when people are side by side on the water, not face-to-face across a table. Veterans who have spent years feeling isolated find themselves among others who understand without needing the whole story explained.
That sense of belonging has a way of compounding over time. One anonymous veteran put it simply: "When I first came here, I was unsure. Now I find myself teaching other veterans how to cast, how to tie, and how to change their lives for the better. It's humbling to go from needing help to being the one giving it. That's the power of this program, it doesn't just heal, it equips us to help others too."
Restoration builds resilience, and resilience builds a desire to give back, a cycle that has repeated itself across 158 chapters and decades of service.
The Human Impact
For many veterans, coming home is where a different kind of battle begins. One participant described spending years feeling angry, disconnected, and distant from the people he loved most, going through the motions while quietly falling apart. When a fellow veteran suggested Project Healing Waters, he dismissed it. Fly fishing did not sound like an answer.
"Nobody was trying to impress anybody. Nobody cared what rank you were or what you did overseas. We just stood in the river and talked like human beings again." That was enough to start. Over time, something shifted in how he slept, how he laughed, how he showed up for the people around him. His wife noticed before he did.
"This organization didn't magically erase everything. But it gave me something I hadn't felt in years, peace."
How Benchmade and Abel® Are Supporting the Mission
Abel Reel's support of Project Healing Waters is nothing new. For well over a decade, the brand has backed the organization's mission—including an earlier custom-anodized reel created specifically to benefit PHW and the veterans it serves.
Benchmade is proud to join Abel® in supporting Project Healing Waters with the limited-edition Benchmade x Abel® Mini Adira™. For every knife purchased, $10 goes toward fueling the PHW mission and the work they do for veterans across the country.
The collaboration is rooted in shared respect for water, fly fishing, outdoor craft, and the people behind the mission. Designed as part of the Water Collection, the Mini Adira™ is a natural tie back to the environments where Project Healing Waters does its work: rivers, streams, and the quiet places where connection can begin again.
This limited-edition collaboration launches June 29 and is one way to stand behind Project Healing Waters and the veterans it serves. Anyone who spends time on the water, values American craft, or simply wants to support the mission can be part of it.
Carry the Mission Forward
Project Healing Waters stands for more than fly fishing. It is built around restoration, resilience, community, and lasting connection for veterans who continue to find peace and purpose on the water.
Every chapter, volunteer, participant, and supporter helps carry that mission forward. Benchmade and Abel® are proud to support that mission through this special collaboration, but the heart of the story remains with the veterans standing in the river, tying flies, casting lines, teaching one another, and finding their way back to themselves one moment at a time.
To learn more, find a local chapter, or visit Project Healing Waters. You can also support the mission directly through Project Healing Waters Ways to Give.
For those who served, the water is always open.