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**this fundraiser is to raise money for the appropriate filing for the non profit organization Fishing After the Fight. Donations made here will be used for the filing fees via legal zoom which are around 510 dollars. Any additional money will then be made as a donation directly to Fishing after the fight. All donations will be halted when the goal is reached.**
I just transitioned out of the Active duty military life to civilian life. And if it wasn't for the support I have on a daily basis, this transition would have been impossible and I would have gone down a very dark path without a doubt. I am one of the lucky ones.
A surprising amount of veterans are told "thank you for your service" and pushed aside into a new world where everyone thinks, talks, moves, and lives completely different from what's been drilled into them for the last however many years. This, among many factors, leads to things such as addiction, homelessness, reckless behavior, and sometimes in the worst cases, suicide, just to name a few of the many issues facing veterans today.
In 2017 I deployed to Iraq. The deployment was easy. I worked, I ate, I ran, and I did homework. What wasn't easy was coming home during a difficult relationship, facing a growing dependence on alcohol, and not feeling like I could reach out to anyone for support. Until I got picked to go fishing from a seemingly insignificant (to me) group that unknowingly changed the course of my life. I went on that trip and had what I was missing, which was that feeling of people understanding my experiences and being okay with how "weird" I may have been acting. I decided to get help at that point and that set me back on the right path. From that moment, I knew some capacity of my life was going to be devoted to helping veterans.
That brings us to this. I have been fishing a lot of my life, and some of my top memories from life involve a fishing pole and lines getting tight. But what it also gives me is peace. In a world that doesn't slow down for veterans to get their bearings in stressful times, its important to know the importance a little bit of peace can bring to someone's mind.
Fishing After the Fight is for veterans to connect to other veterans, veteran's resources, the outdoors, themselves, and their families. The goal is not just to take a veteran fishing every once in a while (which is going to happen a lot, free of charge of course) but to equip them with fishing poles, lures, etc and the knowledge to take their friends and families with them to have more moments of connection when it matters. During peace. There are some massive plans for this and I really hope if you made it this far in the post that you take time to go follow the Instagram page. More social media pages will be made as this grows. The Instagram page is more for accountability so I actually do this.
None of the proceeds will benefit me in any way besides helping our veterans.
Thank you so much.
Dylan Rusher
President
Fishing After the Fight
**this fundraiser is to raise money for the appropriate filing for the non profit organization Fishing After the Fight. Donations made here will be used for the filing fees via legal zoom which are around 510 dollars. Any additional money will then be made as a donation directly to Fishing after the fight. All donations will be halted when the goal is reached.**