Today we’d like to introduce you to Jarod Klucho.
Hi Jarod, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Iraq in 2008. Upon returning to the States, I found myself behaving quite recklessly. After a few years of being home, I started fishing again and found peace in the river. In 2014, I started volunteering with Project Healing Waters as I saw the impact of fishing on my life and wanted to help other veterans. In 2019, I became the Program Lead for the Columbus chapter of Project Healing Waters. The three goals I set when taking the lead for the program were to seek to help more OIF and OEF veterans, build a solid veteran community, and offer world-class fishing opportunities to our veterans. We have certainly come a long way in working towards those goals, but we strive to improve daily.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It certainly has been a challenging road. Shortly after taking over as the Program Lead, COVID shut us down for over a year. However, it was a great place to restart. Since 2021, we have grown from 20 members to 145 today. One of the challenges our growth has created is the need for additional fundraising. We need to offer additional opportunities since many events are limited to how many can attend. We will provide over 50 fly-fishing events this year to our veterans. We used to offer up from 12-15 annually. Our biggest challenge is always getting the word out to disabled veterans who may be interested in fly fishing or volunteers who are interested in donating their time.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We offer fly fishing, fly tying, rod building, and other events to disabled veterans. I’m most proud of the hard work and dedication of our volunteers to educate our veterans about all things fly fishing. We do all we do locally, without any paid staff, including myself.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I was catching big fish with my dog. Most things have stayed the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.projecthealingwaters.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phwffcolumbusoh
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PHWFFColumbusOH
