Today we’d like to introduce you to Becca Sue Klein.
Hi Becca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Becca Sue Klein here – fundraiser, writer, movement maker, metastatic breast cancer warrior, fly angler, outdoorswoman and friend. In my 40 years I’ve been no stranger to the great outdoors, having spent the summers of my youth in the mountains of North Georgia and hiking the Appalachian Trail; my college years in Boone, North Carolina, camping, hiking, skiing, fishing, and rock climbing; more than fifteen years working within the Waterkeeper movement, and the past six years with my feet planted firmly in a river with my fly rod in hand.
After serving as Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s (CRK) development director since 2009, I moved to a part-time position with the organization last year in order to give me time to undergo treatment for my stage iv metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. As CRK’s first-ever planned giving officer, I work to ensure the legacy of the organization’s many donors through planned gifts to ensure the future of our Chattahoochee River and the organization’s important water protection programs.
My passion is definitely the environment, and it shows not only through my career but also my volunteer work. I am a proud member of the Georgia Women Fly Fishers where I’ve served as their Board of Directors’ Events and Outreach Chair. I am the past president of the Southeastern Council Board of Directors for Fly Fishers International and am a member of Trout Unlimited. I am the proud founder of CRK’s Becca Sue Klein All Kids Fish event which brings young people out to learn more about the sport of fly fishing and why protecting our waterways is so important; and am the founder of the Reeling in Recovery program in Atlanta, which brings men and women in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse out to experience the healing nature of fly fishing. I enjoy making service to others the core of my lifestyle.
I also enjoy writing, serving as an associate editor for DUN Magazine, and contributing writer to numerous fly-fishing publications. I currently reside in Smyrna with my service dog Gunner.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
They say God only gives us what we can handle. I like to add to that by saying “I only wish he didn’t trust me so much.”
Life has handed me some difficult cards, starting with my initial cancer diagnosis in 2015 at age 33. Since then, I have overcome a thyroid cancer diagnosis, getting sober from alcohol addiction, and the shock of being handed a terminal cancer diagnosis in 2020 – just one week after the world shut down from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now, at 40, I work daily to accept life on life’s terms. One of my coping mechanisms is my drive to find meaning in every 24 hours. I do this through service to others through my position at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, my volunteer work, and the nonprofit Reeling in Recovery which I started this year with the support of three other founding staff members and a dedicated board of nine individuals who are connected to fly fishing and the recovery community, or have been impacted by alcohol and drug addiction whether personally or through a loved one.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Service to others is the core of my lifestyle and what gets me through each day. I founded the Becca Sue Klein All Kids Fish, an annual program presented by Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and Reeling in Recovery, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that celebrates life free from drug and alcohol addiction by embracing the nature and the spiritual connection that fly fishing has brought so many.
Becca Sue Klein All Kids Fish
Inspiring the next generation of fly anglers and conservationists:
In 2019, after a successful three-year partnership with The Orvis Company supporting water quality work in the Chattahoochee River Basin, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) hosted the first-ever Water Warriors summit. The event was a celebration of CRK’s 25th anniversary and a part of a broader commitment to inspire the next generation of environmentalists.
That year I founded an idea – to bring girls from the region on the water to experience a day of fly fishing and learn why protection of our waterways is important.
We knew we wanted to develop and enable a new generation of conservation-minded youth who protect the waters that nourish fish and people. And the increase of millennial and generation Xers taking their kids out on the water with them was increasing. I saw this as a great partnership to not only expand our youth environmental education programming but to also align with The Orvis Company’s focus on inclusivity on the water and being the first company to sign the Angling for All pledge. Because of the success of the event, CRK made the decision to add a second event to allow children of all genders to have this on-the-water experience. In 2023, CRK will add a third event in partnership with Piedmont Parks Conservancy. The event will be hosted at the park in Atlanta, focusing entirely on partnerships with other nonprofit organizations who serve historically marginalized populations in the city. To date, we have partnerships secured with the YMCA, LaAmistad, and Lost n Found Youth, and are looking for two additional nonprofits to join us for the event.
In March 2020, when I was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer and learned that after surviving two cancer diagnosis’ in 2015 and 2017, the cancer had moved to my bones and liver. In honor of my long-time service to CRK and as a commitment to my mission of empowering youth in the fly-fishing community, the event was named the Becca Sue Klein All Kids Fish, which will be hosted annually in Georgia.
Because of the success of the event, The Orvis Company is working with me and CRK to bring this event to five additional regions – Asheville, New York City, Denver, Dallas, and Reno. Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is honored to be the flagship partner for this event, and for the opportunity to help engage other Waterkeeper groups across the nation in our mission to engage the next generation of fly anglers and conservationists.
Reeling in Recovery
Because life is so much better on this side of the River:
Three days before I walked into my first 12-step meeting, I had a fly rod in hand. Little did I know that day that I was about to embark on a lifelong journey of recovery and discovery. Fly fishing (and the help of my program) would soon guide me through some of my most trying times, all the while teaching me to enjoy calmer waters.
I will never forget that hot week in August of 2016. It was a week of what many in 12-step recovery programs call a “dry drunk.” My life had been on a cycle. I went to work, and then I went to the bar. The next day, back to work and another happy hour come 5 PM. Weekends were, of course, spent deciding what outdoor patio I would drink on with my friends and what bar we would find ourselves at that night. Other than the career I loved so much my only other focus was the never-ending party of my youth.
Meanwhile, my peers were busy not only excelling in their careers but getting married and building families, becoming financially stable adults, buying houses, going on vacations, (you see where I’m going with this). I was tired of being stuck. Or as they say in the program, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I yearned for change, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone.
On August 26, 2016, I made the decision to give it over to the goddess and decided that I was ready to live my own personal truth – a life without alcohol.
I remember the emotional roller coaster of my first six months in sobriety like it was yesterday. I cried a lot. I went to a lot of meetings. I dived into the literature. And I tried my very best to take it one day at a time. After all, that was the motto of this program – I just had to get through 24 hours and then wake up and do it all over again. I was learning to live in the present.
To be in the moment was very hard for me, as I was always living in the wreckage of a tomorrow that hadn’t arrived yet (one of those character defects that working the 12-steps pointed out to me, and one that I’m still working on). But there was something freeing about this new way. Little did I know that this practical application of being PRESENT would help me understand how to live my very best life.
Remember how I said I had a fly rod in my hand three days before I decided to admit that I was powerless over alcohol? Fly fishing soon replaced my daily wine and whiskey consumption. It was a reprieve from the stresses of my day-to-day life. When I wasn’t on the water fishing, I was reading about nymphing, practicing my cast in the driveway, learning new knots, or watching YouTube videos and listening to fly fishing podcasts. I became the girl who wanted to go to bed early so she could get up early and go fishing, instead of the girl who wanted to stay up all night partying.
Fly fishing challenged my mind those first few years in recovery. Because it required focus, it became a healthy mental escape in combination with working my 12-step program. When I was fishing, I wasn’t thinking about my lists of things to do, how much weight I’d gained, my debt, or obsessing about all of the mistakes I’d made in my past. I wasn’t worrying about things I couldn’t control. Instead, I was living in the moment and developing strategies for fishing that day. What fly would I choose? How would I present it to the fish? I was focusing on something outside of myself, which began to delay the instant gratification patterns that I battled during my days of drinking. I was finding myself for the first time.
I soon realized that I could take many of the lessons that the 12-step literature taught me and apply them to my time on the water. And that’s what got me through another 24 hours. Before finding the peace and serenity that comes with sobriety, I would get so frustrated at the behavior of others. One of my biggest life lessons over the past three years has been that the only thing I have control over is myself and how I act (or react) to situations in life. I have been able to apply that lesson to my time on the water as well.
In fly fishing, I’m not able to control the elements when I’m out on the water, which may cause me to get “skunked” for the day. I have learned that I can only control what I do to try to improve the situation – maybe it’s trying every fly in my fly box until I find the one the fish are eating. Maybe it’s improving my drift. Or maybe it’s even hiking down to new water instead of staying at the same old run I’ve caught fish in before.
And when I do get skunked (because, as my program has taught me, life will always happen at some point or another), I now see the silver lining. I see the good in spending the day out in nature and at peace. I see the good in spending real quality time with friends or my family or even having those cherished moments alone and in silence.
Fly fishing is honestly the best therapy I could have ever asked for. I’ve said it before – there’s something about stepping out into a stream with nothing but the sounds of nature around you. There’s something spiritual about the way the light peeks through the trees at dawn, or the way caddis dance over the water right before dusk. In the past three years, fly fishing has helped me find a power greater than myself. And for that, I will be forever grateful.
-DUN Magazine article I wrote anonymously in 2019
https://link.edgepilot.com/s/5a66ffc2/e2g7AhyZhUOeW-khcovOdQ?u=https://dunmagazine.com/posts/reeling
In 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and a stage iv metastatic breast cancer diagnosis, I decided to rally the troops to use my tenor in the nonprofit sector, my passion for serving others, and my love of fly fishing to start a nonprofit organization that would be dedicated to providing free fly fishing retreats for those in active recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.
The first retreat was held in 2019 and is detailed in my 2019 article for DUN Magazine (mentioned above). Our second retreat, and first coed retreat, was held in September 2022 on the banks of the Soque River.
In 2023 we will host two retreats in Georgia, one in Colorado, and one in Pennsylvania. RiR aims to celebrate life free from drug and alcohol addiction by embracing nature and the spiritual connection that fly fishing has brought so many. In an industry that is often saturated with beer and bourbon sponsors, we also serve as a safe space for fly anglers who are doing the work one day at a time and those who have been impacted by addiction through a loved one or other important person in their life.
We recover loudly so that others don’t have to suffer in silence!
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Acceptance.
To get engaged:
- Becca Sue Klein All Kids Fish retreat dates:
May 6, 2023 (coed event in Helen, GA)
August 5, 2023 (100% scholarship event in Atlanta, GA)
October 21, 2023 (all-girls event in Helen, GA) - Find out more about Reeling in Recovery by visiting reelinginrecovery.org or by following us on Instagram at @reelinginrecovery
Contact Info:
- Website: reelinginrecovery.org OR chattahoochee.org/allkidsfish/
- Instagram: @reelinginrecovery OR @CRKeeper
- Facebook: https://link.edgepilot.com/s/3aabf23e/dVbD8C5hW0iPIN8KnvgcIw?u=https://www.facebook.com/reelinginrecovery2022/ OR https://link.edgepilot.com/s/d5f04270/Jnf62qXEi0q_C3wq3amPWA?u=https://www.facebook.com/chattahoocheeriverkeeper
Image Credits
Justin Dobson
Josh England
