Float on 'holy' river honors cancer fighter
 

Float on 'holy' river honors cancer fighter

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicl...6101293751.xml

Saturday, April 30, 2005, By Susan Harrison Wolffis, CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

She called the Muskegon River "holy waters."

Whenever she needed solace from the storms of cancer, or simply wanted to satisfy her passion for fly-fishing, Roe Konopa-Ashley went to the river -- and waded in.

"They call these holy waters," she said, "and you can see why."

On Sunday, her friends, family and a whole slew of strangers will honor Konopa-Ashley, who died last June, by going to her beloved river and holding a memorial they're calling "Roe's Float 2005."

People will begin to gather about 7:30 a.m. Sunday six miles north of Newaygo on the Muskegon River "to reflect and fish for a day," said Debra Johnston-Visch of Jenison, one of the event's organizers.

She and Konopa-Ashley met in 1997 at a fly-fishing retreat for women with breast cancer, which Johnston-Visch organized and ran. Konopa-Ashley attended every "Reeling and Healing of Michigan" retreat from then on, unable to leave the river for long.

She even volunteered to work at the August 2003 retreat, although she had just learned she had a malignant mass in her liver and was in fragile health. She knew it would be her last retreat.

She was 56 when she died; she battled cancer for nine and a half years.

"It's so hard to explain what brings me here ... to the river," she said in a Chronicle interview. "It's just something that grabs you and doesn't release you. (The river) keeps you. It claims you."

At least 15 fishing guides, all operating Hyde drift boats built for fly-fishing, have volunteered to take part in Roe's Float Sunday.

Each guide will take two people, many of them cancer survivors, most whom have never fly-fished before. The boats will launch between 8:30 and 9 a.m., 15 boats in a line, all floating on the river: thus the name, Roe's Float.

By 2 or 3 p.m., the boats should reach Henning's Park in Newaygo.

Newaygo County Parks system has waived entrance fees for those who want to see Roe's Float.

"Everybody's been touched in some way by cancer ... or lost loved ones and friends," Johnston-Visch said. "What better place to go than the river to remember them?"

Roe's Float was the brainchild of fishing guide Denny Sciba of Muskegon, who co-owns Drift-Away guide service. He and Konopa-Ashley, who lived in Twin Lake, grew up in Manistee "and fished together when we were kids."

Sciba invited his fellow fishing guides with Hyde drift boats to take part in the memorial. His work on behalf of his friend's memory drew the attention of LaMoyne Hyde, owner of the Hyde Drift Boat company in Idaho.

Hyde, a cancer survivor, traveled to Michigan to take part in the Float. He even will operate one of the boats and teach his "passengers" how to fly-fish.

Guides and passengers will be taken by bus from Henning's Park to Loomis Lodge in Newaygo when the event is finished.

Roe's Float is not a fund-raiser; it is meant as a memorial for Roe, and all the people she represents, Johnston-Visch said.

"This is a wonderful way to bring people together," Johnston-Visch said. "I'd like to see this happen every year."

By the way, fly-fishing season officially starts today.

The weather forecast was calling for cloudy, rainy, cool weather for the weekend, but that won't stop Roe's Float. That goes on, rain or shine.

"Bring your rain gear and your sense of humor," Johnston-Visch said. "Good advice for all of life, don't you think?"