First retreat opens in York Harbor

August 31, 2026

Our first retreat opened on August 31 in York Harbor, and more than forty people from the community came out for it.

York PD and Ogunquit PD were there. So were the American Legion and members from the York Senior Center. We had Army, Air Force, and Intelligence Community folks on the dock, along with family and friends of the Foundation.

Guests went fishing. Guests went sailing. Some spent the day on the water and along the coast doing nothing in particular, which is its own kind of medicine.

We ate together and there was a lot of laughing.

That is the whole idea behind Waves of Honor. The work does not happen in a circle of chairs. It happens sideways, in a boat and around a table, with people who understand each other without having to explain. August 31 was the first look at what that can be.

Thank you to everyone who showed up, and to the departments and organizations that backed this before we had a single retreat behind us.

More to come.

Officers and supporters gathered under the Waves of Honor banner at the opening ceremony in York Harbor, August 31, 2026.
Waves of Honor volunteers and community partners at the York Harbor opening ceremony, August 31, 2026.
Guests and supporters on the dock at the opening of the first Waves of Honor retreat, York Harbor, August 31, 2026.

In the press

Before our first retreat, the Portsmouth Herald ran a piece about how Waves of Honor came together. It covers Dan Sheffer and Sean McQuade, brothers-in-law and veterans, and what these retreats were built to do. Asked about the ocean, Dan told the paper it has "no mercy whatsoever."

Read the article on Seacoast Online

Reporting by Max Sullivan, Portsmouth Herald and Seacoast Online. Photograph by Deb Cram, Seacoastonline. The full article is behind the paper's subscription.