TU and TAPS team up to help survivors grieve

This week, for the fifth consecutive year, TU’s Veterans Service Partnership is partnering with Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors to host the TAPS Montana Men’s Retreat at Parade Rest Ranch located on Grayling Creek near West Yellowstone, Mont.

For more than 20 years, TAPS has provided grief counseling and support for families who have lost loved ones in military service. Forty men and TAPS staff attend the four-day retreat which includes a day of fly fishing instruction, two days of floating and fishing the Madison River, horseback riding, and a visit to Yellowstone National Park.

TAPS Men’s Retreat participants experience the therapeutic impact from time spent together in the mountains and on the moving water of southwest Montana and Yellowstone National Park and receive counseling and support from TAPS staff to help them in their grief journey. The TU VSP arranges for 20 volunteer guides from West Yellowstone, Bozeman and Ennis fly shops, and outfitters, and guides along with TU volunteers from the Madison-Gallatin TU Chapter.

TU VSP also provides fly rods and reels and flies and secures a fishing license waiver from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for all TAPS Men’s Retreat participants.

Learn more about the TAPS Men’s Retreat here, and to learn more about TU's VSP program, click here. 

— Dave Kulmlien, TU VSP national coordinator