The History of Idaho2Fly

The Beginning & Early Years
Written by David Lombardi, Co-Founder and Past President

The Idea and Mission - 2013

Few resources exist to address the emotional well-being and mental health of men with cancer. That scarcity is made worse by something deeply familiar to anyone who has known a man facing a serious illness: the tendency to hide emotions, to tough things out, to withdraw rather than reach out for support. Idaho2Fly was formed to meet that need — to provide non-medical emotional and mental health support, and to build a community, for men with cancer.

Idaho doctor Dick Wilson was first exposed to the idea of using fly fishing as a means to provide support to men with cancer during a fishing trip in Montana. To learn more, he volunteered to work at a retreat in Montana arranged by Reel Recovery — a national nonprofit that had developed a model for bringing men with cancer together on the water. He came home convinced the idea would work in Idaho, and he began recruiting volunteers.

Dick arranged the first fly fishing retreat for men with cancer in Idaho as a Reel Recovery volunteer at the Wild Horse Creek Lodge in the Copper Basin. For the first time, Idaho men with cancer could attend a fly fishing retreat in their own state — and begin, together, to explore how to live with their disease.

Retreats have at least two parts. There is, of course, the fishing — the hook, in every sense, that encourages men to sign up for a weekend away. All men with cancer are encouraged to sign up and no fishing experience is required. Fishing skill, transportation to the water, and help, lots of help, are provided by the volunteers who encourage their “guests” to ask for assistance as an essential part of the weekend’s experience. The second part and the heart of a retreat is the time the men spend together in guided conversations, shared meals, learning to ask for help and the gradual discovery that they are not alone.

Two annual Reel Recovery retreats were held at Wild Horse Creek before Lonnie Allen — owner of Three Rivers Resort in Ashton — donated her lodge and her cooks to host a second yearly retreat at the end of the season in 2013. Two retreats felt like progress. But the volunteers who had worked at several retreats began to realize that community is important and that community was missing after everyone went home at the end of a weekend retreat.

Developing A Deeper Community

The Idaho volunteers became increasingly concerned about the lack of follow-up with retreat participants and the lack of a year-round presence in Idaho. They had ideas for expanding and deepening the program and raised some money that could help those ideas to develop, but they got no encouragement from Reel Recovery. The issue came to a head in the fall of 2013, when it became clear that the community building vision of the Idaho volunteers and the direction of Reel Recovery were not the same. So they struck out on their own to create a community in Idaho to support men with cancer.

Having made the decision to create an Idaho entity, the volunteers realized they needed to come up with a name. The preference, if it could be found, was for a name that described the mission. That never quite materialized, but the name “Idaho2Fly” had been used before by the volunteers to refer to a fishing derby format in which each participant is limited to two flies chosen at the start of a competition. The name stuck and it was agreed the new entity would be called Idaho2Fly. The mission, however, is not obvious from the name alone, which is why the tag line “Supporting Men with Life Impacting Illnesses” and eventually “Supporting Men with Cancer” is included as part of the logo. There have been occasional conversations about finding a different name over the years, but they keep coming back to the same conclusion. It looks like Idaho2Fly is here to stay.

Idaho2Fly was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation on September 18, 2013. David Lombardi, Fred Hebert, and Alex Klokke made up the original board of directors. Bylaws were adopted, and David Lombardi was elected president at the first official board meeting on December 16, 2013. An application for 501(c)(3) status followed on December 30, and the first joint meeting of the board and volunteers took place on February 6, 2014. The group set their goals at that meeting: two retreats every year, a fundraising derby, an expanded board, and — above all — a community. Dick Wilson remained a part of the community as an active advisor, advocate, and volunteer for years to come.

Building Community - 2014

The early years were spent establishing first time events that would recur annually, building the legal, administrative and financial infrastructure and getting the word out. Idaho2Fly volunteers appeared at fly fishing events — the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo, the Fly Fishing Film Tour in Boise, the Eastern Idaho Fly Tying Expo in Idaho Falls — and reached out to cancer patients and healthcare providers at prostate cancer support meetings and cancer care centers across the Treasure Valley and beyond.

The 2Fly Derby

In May 2014, the first of what would become ten annual Idaho2Fly Derby fundraisers was held at Ron Sali’s Three Rivers Ranch in Eagle. Colored float tubes and pontoon boats and dozens of fly fishermen dotted the 100 acre lake catching and releasing trout and bass until the end of the day. Jerry Hughes, owner of Hughes River Expeditions, provided a dutch oven lunch while the participants heard from speakers about Idaho2Fly and its plans for the future. The event raised more than enough to fund two retreats that summer — one at Wild Horse Creek and one at Three Rivers Ranch in Ashton and helped to build the foundation for the Idaho2Fly community.

The Blue Ribbon Rally Car Show

A few months later, a new partnership took shape with Idaho Urologic Institute, which sponsored a Cancer Awareness Motorcycle FunRun in 2014. The event was successful and has repeated annually as motorcycles have given way to cars, and the name has changed to the Blue Ribbon Rally for Prostate Cancer Awareness Car Show. Idaho2Fly and Idaho Urologic Institute remain close partners today.

Growing Community - 2015 & Forward

Idaho2Fly went into 2015 with a mission service foundation made up of the retreats at Wild Horse Creek and Three Rivers Ranch and a fundraising foundation made up of The Derby and the Blue Ribbon Rally. Once this foundation was established, it became possible in 2015 to begin building and expanding the community. These efforts included the first reunion for guests and volunteers, held at the Cancer Connection in Boise; the first reunion picnic for former retreat participants and volunteers, organized in Meridian by volunteers Chris Moore and Les Curvey; and expanded outreach through Coping Connections meetings at Saint Alphonsus Cancer Care Center and the St. Luke’s MSTI Survivorship Programs in Boise and Twin Falls. The reunion picnic became an annual tradition, growing in attendance each year until Covid paused it in 2020, after which it reconvened as a reunion dinner at the Meridian Senior Center.

Going back to their fishing roots in 2016, Idaho2Fly volunteers organized and staffed Fly Fishing 101 — a series of weekly classes covering all aspects of fly fishing, offered every year since. Pizza and snacks come with the class, whenever a venue allows. It has been especially rewarding to see prospective guests, former guests, and longtime volunteers learning side by side. Speaking of pizza, about this time, former guest Ken Miller and others started informally meeting together for pizza in what would be a precursor to coffee gatherings that are now a regular part of the Idaho2Fly community.

The Idaho2Fly approach to retreats evolved as other things developed over time. Guests were always provided great meals by the Wild Horse Creek and Three Rivers Ranch resorts, but volunteers, who sometimes slept in tents, trailers and other accommodations at or near the retreat site, didn’t get their meals from the lodge kitchens. They formed kitchen crews that shopped, transported ingredients for Dutch oven and similar meals and provided meals, camp style, for each other. The most frequent chefs were Paul and Emmett Bushman who cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner — as needed — at retreats, derbies, and other events. Paul even built a cook trailer kitchen that he hauled to events across the region. After several years and the number of retreats increased, arrangements were made with the lodge kitchens to provide meals to the volunteers.

The Test of Covid: 2020 - 2021

The years 2020 and 2021 tested Idaho2Fly as they tested every organization built around bringing people together. Both years’ retreats were cancelled out of concern for Covid transmission. The Derby continued on a smaller scale, with box lunches delivered to participants in place of the usual gathering. Face-to-face meetings moved to Zoom.

But difficulty has a way of producing creativity. Through the efforts of volunteers Chris Preston and Bob Calhoun and others, facilitated discussions online led by Idaho2Fly facilitators were offered in lieu of retreats. Fly Fishing 101 was also presented over Zoom and made available on the Idaho2Fly Facebook Page, reaching people who might never have attended an in-person class, including a few people from out of state who were aware of Idaho2Fly and Fly Fishing 101.

Idaho2Fly came back with three full retreats and a full slate of events when the Covid restrictions were removed in 2022.

New Leadership, New Chapters

New ideas and new leadership are essential to the life of any organization. In 2021, R. Keith Murphy was elected president of Idaho2Fly, and David Lombardi transitioned to a non-voting role on the board. The handoff was the kind that founders hope for: a smooth passing of the baton to someone ready to carry it forward.

Steve Drabek now serves as the third president of Idaho2Fly while Keith Murphy serves as a non-voting member of the board and David Lombardi lends legal counsel when needed. Learn more about our current leadership team here — Our Team.

And Idaho2Fly continues to grow. We now offer four summer retreats, plus a new local “Urban Retreat”, and numerous activities and events — several day trips on the Boise river, sturgeon fishing events, photography and watercolor classes, a Buddy Program pairing men going through the experience of facing cancer, and regular coffee gatherings that keep the community connected between events.

The Past is Prelude to the Future

Reduced to its essence, Idaho2Fly has no building, no storefront and no physical home. It is a shared commitment by the volunteers to the men it serves, and a community built carefully over more than a decade by volunteers who believe that commitment matters. Many great people, including many former guests, have helped to build that community as volunteers. Some of those individuals have been mentioned in this history, but the list is too long to mention everyone. That fact, however, does not diminish our deep gratitude to every committed individual who helped to make Idaho2Fly what it is today and is committed to what it will become in the future with “One More Cast”.