We’re excited to release an exclusive monthly blog series, From the Riffle. Each month, Casting for Recovery will feature a guest blogger that will share information on who they are, their “home waters” where they fish, how they are connected to CfR and where they would like to see the organization in the next 25 years.

We recently connected with Gwenn Bogart, a founding member of Casting for Recovery. Read more as Gwenn talks about her hopes for CfR and what’s she is currently up to.

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I am a founding member of Casting for Recovery with the official title of Chairman Emeritus! While I am not a nationally active participant in the workings of CfR, I stay involved on a state level. My husband and I moved from Alaska to Wyoming in 2017 and have been delighted to learn the Wyoming CfR is very active. Now, my life is consumed with taking care of and training my competition sled dogs. Every year I offer a day of sled dog rides to the public as a fundraiser for the Wyoming CfR. It has given me the opportunity to meet and get to know the local women involved with CfR who have become good friends. There are some other creative ideas I have for incorporating my canine athletes in more state level fundraising.

Casting for Recovery is at the core of who I am as a human being. If CfR can help women forget their diagnosis for at least a few moments in a day, then, I believe it has met a mission. I am not a cancer survivor but have endured some tough times as we all have. Fly fishing got me through it. When I hear women say “CfR has changed my life” I am so very humbled. My throat gets thick and my eyes well up with tears, tears of joy and gratitude. Grateful for those at the helm of CfR and the thousands of volunteers  who continue to carry the torch for so many women struggling through diagnosis and treatment. 

My dream for the future of CfR is that it will continue to grow nationally and internationally. There are so many women who want to but have not yet been able to participate in a CfR retreat. There are a myriad of reasons for that such as limited funding. In the next 25 years, it is my dream that CfR could have a very large underwriter come forward to give support enabling CfR to provide retreat availability to all who want to participate. CfR has touched oh-so-many lives but, that being said we have only just begun.