Announcement/ Jan 13

Row Ontario Award Winners Announced

The hard work and dedication of members of the Ontario rowing community was recognized on Thursday as Row Ontario announced their 2021 award winners. The award winners included the recipients of Long Service Awards, Volunteer Certificates, and the newly created Resilience and Perseverance Award.

Long Service Awards are given to registered participants of a member club who has volunteered in the Ontario rowing community for 15 years or more. Volunteer Certificates are presented by member clubs to their hard-working volunteers who have invested countless time and energy into the sport of rowing. The Resilience and Perseverance Award recognizes those who have demonstrated the traits of resilience and perseverance in helping their club overcome the difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other Row Ontario award categories typically given out were not distributed this year due to disruptions to the rowing season brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 award winners are as follows:

Resilience and Perseverance Award Winners

Jason van Ravenswaay - Argonaut Rowing Club

Since March 2020, Jason’s focus has been, and continues to be, the safety of Argonaut Rowing Club members while keeping a strong sense of community at the Club. He created and led the Argonaut Rowing Club’s COVID-19 response committee to ensure that the club was following guidelines. His unwavering commitment to safety was demonstrated as he pivoted during the changing regulations and restrictions, demonstrated strong financial acumen as he successfully applied for grants, focused on cost savings, and found other funding streams to ensure revenue. Because of his actions, members of the Argonaut Rowing Club pulled together throughout the past two years. Jason led the board and coaches to create online workouts as well as loaning ergs and weights to members. Jason was instrumental in the club’s success during COVID-19.

Nicole Bellefleur - Guelph Rowing Club

Nicole’s outstanding resilience and perseverance during COVID 19 is evident in her dedication to LTR coaches, the growth of GRC during challenging times, and ensuring the larger community continues to have an opportunity to experience the sport of rowing. Club members witnessed the creativity of Nicole and her team to ensure all participants had a safe rewarding experience including dockside rowing, a challenge at Guelph Lake. Nicole’s welcoming style during a time that required limited socialization, brought smiles to participants/coaches/members as they quietly participated masked and/or walked by with masks carrying boats. Nicole’s resilience and outstanding perseverance continually brought HOPE during challenging times and her quiet humbling leadership style truly demonstrates dedication to the sport of rowing.

Bill Stone - Island Lake Rowing Club

In 2021 Bill championed and led activities to build back club membership. He focussed on attracting new Learn to Row Adults and Elementary students that would be in High School for the 2022 rowing season. His efforts included activities related to Come and Try Day, Learn to Row, summer youth and adult programs and training novices for a fall regatta. These projects resulted in our most successful Come and Try Day, with over 100 participants, a record Learn to Row Program, full Summer Camp program and wins at the Frostbite regatta for the novice crew. During this time Bill also contributed to other club management duties including developing and executing activities related to special projects supported by COVID-recovery grants.

Katie Bruggeling - Kingston Rowing Club

In addition to her work as a full-time coach, Katie volunteered to lead the Kingston Rowing Club’s COVID-19 Safety Committee, enhancing the club’s safety measures and membership participation. She worked to keep athletes and coaches safely training from home through an erg lending program and Zoom coaching sessions early in the pandemic, and proactively established policies and procedures to ensure a safe return to the water when possible, staying abreast of developments and altering programs and participation to quickly adjust to changes in provincial and rowing policies. The Kingston Rowing Club is extremely grateful to Katie for everything she’s done to keep their coaches, athletes and rower’s families informed and safely engaged in rowing through a very trying time.

James Dyer - Peterborough Rowing Club

James Dyer was the PRC Head Coach throughout the last two years. Every time the club got knocked down he bounced back just a bit higher. He was nimble to the ever-changing public health guidelines and quickly shifted direction when needed to make sure that programs continued whether it was virtually, indoors, outdoors in small boats or big boats. James did not stop at training rowers and getting athletes on the water. He ensured within the public health protocols and rowing cohorts, that the club built on its inclusive community. He did so by hosting weekly zoom workouts, erg lending, single racing within cohorts, in school virtual programing and even starting off the winter training season with individualized movement screens. The continued club engagement reflects the impact of James leadership, resilience and perseverance. These are the impacts that will be long lasting after the pandemic.

Henley Island Helpers - St. Catharines Rowing Club

Over the summer of 2020 the Henley Island Helpers updated and painted the booth and arranged to have a large patio built and landscaped. Much of the material was donated and the work done by volunteers. In June of 2021, the HIH opened the Breakfast Café on weekends and holidays – rain or shine – staffed entirely by volunteers. They were careful to ensure COVID-19 protocols were strictly observed including having every guest register so that contact tracing could be done if needed. The Breakfast Café, which was open to the public, was a great success – the food was five-star! As before, HIH profits will be put towards rowing in St. Catharines. The past two summers have been disappointing for everyone not the least has been the rowing community. This project has allowed the St. Catharines Rowing Club’s community to be together safely and socially.

Neil Tarlton - Sudbury Rowing Club

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the Sudbury Club added layers of safety protocols, Neil was the first to embrace them and lead by example. Others soon followed and the high level of compliance has allowed the Club to continue with many of its regular activities. If it were not for Neil, and oarsmen like Neil, the rowing community would be a much smaller and less joyful. Neil arrives for his early morning rows with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. For him, each morning brings a fresh set of opportunities. He is the first to offer help with a broken dock, a sticky oarlock, or a seat that just won’t slide. He does it all with skill and precision and best of all – a joyful sense of humour!

Barb Pidgen – Orillia Rowing Club

Barb was the President of the Orillia Rowing Club from 2013-2021 and was instrumental in leading the club through all of the changes and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. She ensured that guidelines and protocols presented by Rowing Canada and Row Ontario were followed and adhered to by all members of the club, including setting up subgroups for Emergency Response, Infection Control, an Operations Team, & sourcing PPE supplies. She led the process for getting the approval from Municipal and Provincial Governments to proceed with opening and also led the design of a COVID Code of Conduct, In-water Rescue procedure during COVID-19, a Risk Assessment Tool, and boathouse signage. Barb spearheaded the Learn-to-Row program and Try-It days for new rowers, making sure that one-on-one coaching was provided during the first COVID-19 summer and then some group sessions during this past summer. She also led the application of grants and funding to support the club’s sustainability; was the driving force for fundraising efforts in 2021. Barb led efforts for boat and oar sponsorships at the corporate and community level, including a new quad boat christened this year.

Susan Smith – Ottawa New Edinburgh Club

Susan is the immediate past Director of Rowing at the Ottawa New Edinburgh Club, a role she took on in the fall of 2019 at the time the Club was relocated out of its boathouse home to a downstream site on the Ottawa River shoreline for what will be a 4-year renovation project. During this 2-year period, she had to deal with the logistics of moving the rowing operations and equipment to an unsecured site along the river, as well as organizing and transporting shells to another site for winter storage, as the boathouse could no longer used. Susan had overall responsibility for the rowing summer camps and was also the ONEC lead for developing and monitoring COVID-19 guidance, procedures and practices for all rowing activities; guidance used as a standard by the sailing and tennis components of ONEC for all its summer camps for school-aged children. She also participated as a coach in the adult learn-to-row program and was a staunch advocate for strengthening the Club’s coach training and meeting the RCA guidelines for such.

Long Service Awards

15 Years
Russ Gaskin – Brockville Rowing Club
Tiffany Thompson – Collingwood Rowing Club
Julie Horrocks – Guelph Rowing Club

20 Years
Peter Burpee – Ottawa Rowing Club
Maxine Walker – Quinte Rowing Club
Tracey Newman – St. Catharines Rowing Club

25 Years
Gilda Wainwright – Don Rowing Club
Richard Vincent – Ottawa New Edinburgh Club
Greg Brown – Ottawa Rowing Club
Michele Fisher – St. Catharines Rowing Club
Louise Hastings – St. Catharines Rowing Club
Carol Purcer – St. Catharines Rowing Club

30 Years
Glen Burston – London Western Rowing Club
Tony Arcuri – Niagara Falls Rowing Club
Carol Greiner – Quinte Rowing Club

35 Years
Vic Gustavison – Hanlan Boat Club
Scott Matthews – London Western Rowing Club
Michelle Kerr – St. Catharines Rowing Club
Janet Lancaster – St. Catharines Rowing Club
Carl MacCulloch – St. Catharines Rowing Club

40 Years
Bill Schenck – Canadian Henley Regatta Joint Commission Corporation

45 Years
Martyn Judson – London Western Rowing Club