East Valley Marines support Healing Waters project

A recent gathering of wounded warriors with the Sun Lakes Fishing Club.

A recent gathering of wounded warriors with the Sun Lakes Fishing Club.

Denise Lott

As part of their work on behalf of Wounded Warriors, the East Valley marines, Marine Corps League Detachment 1296, listened to a presentation by Sun Lakes resident George Abernathy of the Sun Lakes Fly Fishing Club. George was seeking support for his club to bring in veterans from Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.

Fly fishing helps disabled veterans with their motoring skills and is both a challenging and relaxing activity. The Sun Lakes members look forward to hosting the veterans six to eight times per year, so they approached our detachment to help with food and other resources, which the detachment quickly approved.

Other wounded warrior assistance that the detachment provided was requested by Gunnery Sergeant Ryan Cesky who is the District Injured Support Coordinator for our regional Wounded Warrior Regiment. These requests included a donation for a marine unable to work due to shoulder surgery and not eligible for short term disability, a donation to a marine having short term financial difficulty due to an unexpected automotive expense, donations to two marines who just moved and were having financial difficulties as a result, and a donation to a marine who recently lost a job and his former employer refused to pay him the money that he earned.

The detachment meets on the second Tuesday of each month at Oakwood Country Club in the Bradford Room at 7:00 p.m. All marines and others who might be interested in helping our veterans are welcome to attend any meeting. Visit our website at  www.eastvalleymarines.org for more information.