The healing power of the outdoors

For 51 years, veterans in Minnesota have headed to Ely, Minn., in May for a week of relaxation and fishing. But the annual Disabled Veterans Fishing Retreat is not just about fishing and taking in the amazing scenery on Fall Lake and inside Superior National Forest.

It’s also about healing. That’s what Legionnaire Denny Houg, who has volunteered at the event for a decade, has seen take place.

“We meet all kinds of veterans with different needs,” said Houg, a member of Post 254 in Sauk Rapids. “Some are blind. Some are physically handicapped, possible amputees. Wheelchair-bound. PTSD.

“We had a young person with severe PTSD who caught his first two walleyes. The guy, he couldn’t hardly carry on a conversation prior (to catching the fish). But you just saw the medicine. It’s therapy.”

The retreat, which takes place at Veterans on the Lake Resort, started as a Department of Veterans Affairs program, but VA decided to end the program three years ago. That’s when The American Legion Department of Minnesota teamed up with Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America and other veterans service organizations to keep the program going.

Department of Minnesota Adjutant Randy Tesdahl said that while the department didn’t officially become involved with the retreat until around 2005, Legionnaires and posts have been supporting it for decades.

In May of this year, more than 30 Legion family members volunteered at the camp, helping with meals and doing anything else needed. Department of Minnesota Commander Denise Milton was one of the Legionnaires who showed up to support this year’s retreat.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Milton said. “Up here, almost everyone loves fishing and hunting. I think it brings a sense of normalcy, to be honest: being able to do what others do.”

Veterans don’t pay anything to participate. Funding for the event comes via donations and grants. Minnesota Veterans 4 Veterans, a nonprofit set up to provide grants to organizations that assist veterans with their transition into the civilian world, has been a longtime supporter of the fishing retreat. The organization provided a three-year, $90,000 grant to cover housing and food expenses for the week; the event is in the second year of the grant.

Tesdahl said the program provides much more than an outdoors experience for its participants. “We cannot claim to be an alternative form of mental health care. But in reality, we are,” he said. “You see that when these guys get together on a boat deck. They start talking about the commonality. They have shared experiences even though they’re generations apart. There is a healing effect to it.”

Dave Berscheit, who served in the U.S. Marines from 1986-1992, suffered a spinal stroke in 2006 that impaired his mobility from the neck down. While he enjoyed catching fish at this year’s retreat, there was something he found even more fulfilling.

“To be up here with a group of guys … it doesn’t matter if you catch fish,” Berscheit said. “It’s not necessarily about that. There’s no real barrier. It’s just easier to talk to them.”

Berscheit and the other veterans who took part in this year’s retreat applied for a spot in the event. Those applications are vetted by former longtime VA employee Dennis Erie, who was hired by the Minnesota Legion and other VSOs to coordinate the program.

Erie said he received around 50 applications for this year’s 35 spots. Preference is given to disabled and World War II veterans, as well as those applicants who have never taken part in the event.

Like Tesdahl, Erie sees a healing effect from the week. “It’s all positive,” he said. “There are a lot of smiles coming back. It’s an opportunity to get out in Northern Minnesota and be around some other vets.”

The veterans are provided professional fishing guides who donate their time – and equipment – the entire week. When word of mouth spread about the event, Tesdahl said guides lined up to volunteer.

That professional guides are there is because of the efforts of Minnesota National Guard Col. Scott St. Sauver, the outgoing commanding officer at Camp Ripley – one of the largest National Guard training bases in the nation. A co-angler on professional walleye circuit, St. Sauver also has seen what he calls the “tremendous” healing power of the outdoors and has worked with the Legion on other outdoor events for veterans.

Using his contacts in professional fishing, he was able to line up guides for the retreat. But St. Sauver admits he didn’t have to pitch the event too hard to get buy-in from the pros. It’s their way to give back,” he said. “It’s patriotism. These guides will get $500, $600 a day right now, but they’re up here for free.”

That’s why professional fisherman Mark Courts, the 2015 Lucas Oil Walleye Angler of the Year with 12 top-10 finishes in the Fishing League Worldwide, was at Ely this year. “For me, it’s my way of giving back,” he said. “I wasn’t able to serve when I was younger due to health issues, and I always had ties to it. For me, this is fun.”

Courts also saw a transformation in the veterans he took out on his boat this year. “Outdoors is an amazing place,” he said. “It’s got healing powers that nobody can really explain. The minute you get somebody outdoors – no matter their situation, their mindset or any of that – it just goes away. All they’re thinking about is what they’re doing and how they’re enjoying the outdoors.”

For Tesdahl, an avid fisherman who used his own boat to take veterans out to fish during the retreat, the event also is a valuable promotional tool for the Legion. “It’s all about branding,” he said. “It’s all about marketing. It’s all about … changing the image. We’re doing cool stuff.”

And it’s stuff that’s making an impact. Houg fondly remembers what could have been a tragic story from the retreat that instead showed the power of camaraderie. He said that a few years ago a gentleman died of a heart attack while at the retreat. But on the day he died, the man had fished, watched the Minnesota Twins win a baseball game on TV and then won at cards that night in his cabin.

“We went to the funeral,” Houg said. “His sisters said, ‘We were always afraid that he would die by himself in his apartment.’ I said, ‘He sure didn’t do that.’ They were so thankful. He’d had a good last day and died with friends all around him.”