Everyone Can Row Project Taking Off in Nation’s Capital
The Ottawa Rowing Club is making strides in introducing the sport of rowing to underserved communities in the National Capital Region thanks to the Everyone Can Row project.
The project, which launched its first event during the first week of August, is driven by the Ottawa Rowing Club (ORC) with the idea of getting as many people as possible, from all ages and abilities, to try rowing. One of the goals of the project is to increase the number of people the club can serve and broaden the diversity of people rowing at the ORC while extending the club’s capacity to serve its entire local community.
“This is something that’s been close to the club for a long time, which is being able to share our sport with people who wouldn’t normally experience it, due to barriers like location, cost or accessibility,” said Zak Lewis, Head Coach at the ORC. “The thought is that the participants can try out rowing, and in addition to learning a new sport and having an exciting new experience, they will also benefit from the hard work and teamwork that goes into it.”
The project was initially funded in part thanks to a letter Lewis wrote to local Ottawa MP Mona Fortier requesting funding to run a rowing program specifically designed for the underprivileged and underserved communities in the Ottawa area. The inaugural event took place at the Carlington Community Health Centre in the west end of Ottawa and included 35 youth participants between the ages of 12-18, with a few exceptions for younger siblings. The club partnered with Athletes Combatting Racism, a group founded by Dave Smart, a legendary former head coach of the Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team, and several of his former players, many of whom went on to become policemen in the Ottawa area, to run the event.
A few of the policemen also took part in the day’s festivities, which saw Lewis and the ORC coaching staff run the participants through a dynamic warmup, teach them some techniques on the erg, perform some stationary exercises and talk about the sport of rowing and the Canadian rower’s recent success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The day ended with an erg relay competition with the cops and the participants both taking part to add some competitive fun to the day.
“It was a really fun first event.” Said Lewis. “In September, we’ll be bringing several members of that participant group back to the club to actually get them on the water and experience some on-water rowing.”
Every week for the rest of August, the club will be running similar events for different community groups including those from the Lowertown Community Centre, the Boys and Girls Club and an indigenous group from just north of Maniwaki. They also plan on continuing it into September with some of the club’s university students volunteering to help run the events. Initially, the goal of the Everyone Can Row project was to introduce the sport to 60 youths this summer, but thanks to the interest so far, they are set to more than double that number and could reach as high as 150 youths. In addition to introducing the sport, one of the end goals of the project is to start a scholarship fund for some of the youths to become members of the ORC.
To find out more about the Everyone Can Row project and to donate, please visit Everyone Can Row.
