C-Falls native heads national nonprofit

Growing up in the Flathead, Whitney Lange got the water bug early. She spent a decade working as a river guide on the three forks of the Flathead River and is an avid fly-fisherman.

She also has a passion for helping people. She was able to combine that ambition with her love of rivers by working as a program director for seven years with Denver-based First Descents. The group provides free outdoor adventures to young adults with cancer.

Now Whitney Lange Milhoan, she recently landed the executive director job with Vermont-based Casting For Recovery. Founded in 1996, the organization provides free flyfishing weekend retreats to women with breast cancer.

“I’m so excited about joining Casting for Recovery,” she said. “Being able to share the experience of fly fishing — one of my long time passions — with a group of women who can truly benefit from it is an honor and a joy.”

Born and raised in Columbia Falls, where her father worked for Glacier National Park, Milhoan graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1999 and got her bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Montana-Missoula four years later.

After college, she helped start a successful small title company in Mineral County before joining First Descents. One of the founders of the organization was Brad Ludden, who lived in the Flathead.

She married Walker Milhoan in 2009, a Coloradoan who works with agricultural-based software technology. They live in Missoula with their two children and one more due at the end of October.

Lucky for Milhoan, she can do much of her new job online from the comfort of her home. She took the position with Casting For Recovery in September and is involved in day-to-day management, fundraising, program development, strategy and media outreach.

For the latter, she has some familial assistance — sister Hilary Hutcheson works for Outside Media, in Columbia Falls, and can be seen hosting the syndicated television series Trout TV.

According to their Web site, “Casting For Recovery was founded on the principles that the natural world is a healing force, and that cancer survivors deserve one weekend — free of charge and free of the stresses from medical treatment, home or workplace — to experience something new and challenging while enjoying beautiful surroundings within an intimate, safe and nurturing structure.”

Casting For Recovery has served about 5,600 women since it was founded in 1996 by a professional fly fisherman and a breast reconstructive surgeon. Last year, the group helped more than 600 survivors with 42 retreats in 33 states. It has sister organizations in Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, and New Zealand.

It costs Casting For Recovery about $1,000 for each woman who goes on a 2 1/2-day retreat, and many alumnae donate back to the organization. Last year, 41 percent of the group’s donations came from women who have benefited from the retreats.

Demand is high, and a lottery system is used to select participants. Casting For Recovery relies on more than 1,500 volunteers to staff the programs, including more than 600 alumnae.

For more information, visit online at www.castingforrecovery.org or call 888-553-3500.