NEWS & STORIES
Dan Sheesley Receives Phil Johnson Exceptional Leadership Award
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF) takes great pleasure in presenting the Phil Johnson Exceptional Leadership Award to Dan Sheesley for his dedicated and inspiring service to our organization from 2017 to 2021. During this period, his selfless efforts and extreme generosity were directly responsible for the growth and continuous improvement to the PHWFF Washington, D.C. Program while serving as its Program Lead.
In 2017, Dan stepped in to provide leadership when the Washington D.C. VA Medical Center approved the initiation of a PHWFF program at its facility. For five years, his leadership, energy and innovation have achieved success for the D.C. program.
I arrived at a meeting at the Washington D.C. VA, not knowing what to expect. A group called Project Healing Waters was giving a presentation on fly fishing and possible fishing outings. This is when I first met Dan Sheesley, the leader of the local D.C. group. It didn’t take him long to convince me to become a participant, so I joined Project Healing Waters. Dan introduced himself to each of us and opened the first meeting. He explained all the things we would be working on with PHWFF: building fly rods, learning to cast, tying flies, then putting it all together and going fishing. That sounded great, but I thought it would be a challenge for me. But Dan and his volunteer PHWFF staff patiently helped me learn to do all that and more. And we all became close good friends. Our regular weekly meetings became a recreation event I looked forward to and did not want to miss.
PHWFF Participant Charles Kearney III
Thomas Mann, former President of the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited, has nothing but praise for Sheesley.
“Dan assumed the task of creating the program with enthusiasm, imagination, creativity, the bureaucratic perseverance necessary for dealing with the VA, management skill, personal charm, and most importantly, his love for the vets,” Mann said. “After training by PHWFF, he began by recruiting volunteers from our TU chapter who could teach the different skills that are part of the (PHWFF core programs): rod building, fly tying, fly casting and fishing. He found a recreational therapist on the hospital staff who arranged a meeting space and storage facility for the program’s equipment and volunteered to be a liaison with the participants.
“Dan worked with the earliest participants to recruit their fellow veterans, and he built an esprit de corps that fashioned the group into a cohesive unit where the members looked out for each other. The diverse group of participants included men, women, a P-51 pilot from WWII, Vietnam vets, and people who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dan made them all feel that they belonged. Dan knew every person’s history, and he was a warm, respectful leader who was admired by everyone involved in the program.”
This wasn’t a task without its challenges, however. Located in an urban setting, leading an outside program at a VA facility entailed many logistical and bureaucratic challenges for Sheesly.
“For example, to take a group fishing that included disabled persons required special transportation arrangements and other accommodations,” Mann explained. “Dan was skilled in making all these necessary arrangements, and he devoted a great deal of effort, and untold hours of his personal time doing all the elaborate background work that enabled the program to function and to flourish.”
Dan is a Veteran of the US Army. He served from 1967 to 1970 as a Warrant Officer Helicopter Pilot (CW-2). During his service in Vietnam, he was awarded the Silver Star, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and numerous Air Medals.
In the words of George Gaines, founding member of the PHWFF Board of Trustees:
There are many good leaders of PHWFF programs across the country. But Dan stands out as a natural, loyal, gifted, caring, giving, leader who is the perfect selection for a PHWFF leadership position. Dan was a truly significantly outstanding leader. During my 18 years with PHWFF, the only person I’ve known with any deeper dedication and genuine love for the participants and staff of the organization was (founder and President Emeritus) Ed Nicholson. I have been honored to work on Dan’s nomination for the award.
PHWFF Board of Trustees Founding Member George Gaines
Sheesley was successful in his numerous outreach efforts to recruit participants, volunteers, and donors of resources and funds. He was able to secure special equipment to meet the needs of every participant. When it was discovered that some participants in the program were homeless, Dan and his wife Ann provided sandwich buffets at every outside activity.
“Dan Sheesley’s leadership of the Project Healing Waters VA group has been instrumental in getting and keeping the program running in the District of Columbia,” Chief Wildlife Manager for the Fisheries and Wildlife Division of the Department of Energy and Environment Teresa Rodriguez said. “His outreach into the community to provide new partnership opportunities for collaborative programs has enriched the program considerably. He and his team have reached out to the Fisheries and Wildlife Division of the Department of Energy and Environment to share our mission, aquatic education programs and special projects with the participants in the PHWFF program. We have enjoyed working with the PHWFF staff and meeting the participants and hope to continue this relationship in the future.”
By sharing his love of the outdoors and fly fishing with the veterans whom he calls his brothers and sisters, Sheesley embodies the true spirit of PHWFF.
Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is proud to bestow upon Dan Sheesley the Phil Johnson Exceptional Leadership Award for his tireless and extraordinary service to our organization and to those wounded, ill, and injured Servicemen and Servicewomen and disabled Veterans whom this organization serves.