Successful First Year for the PeterboroughRows Program
The Peterborough Rowing Club has been making waves in their community thanks to a creative new program they’ve been running called PeterboroughROWS.
PeterboroughROWS is a three-year program that has been made possible thanks to a grant received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The program is designed to benefit residents of the City and County of Peterborough, from 12 years old to 80+ who are new or returning to recreational rowing. The program is open to anyone with an interest in rowing, and the club has made inclusivity a main priority.
“We were very fortunate to get a three-year Trillium Grant for the program,” said Nancy Fischer, a member of the Peter Rowing Cub’s Board of Directors and one of the driving forces behind PeterboroughROWS. “There was some capital included in the grow grant, which allowed us to buy a coastal quad and 15 ergs which we’ve been using in our school and outreach programs as well as a trailer to transport the ergs. We put the majority of the money towards staffing, but we also made sure we put money towards marketing and trying to knock down barriers that would prevent people from participating.”
The program is designed to promote active lifestyles by delivering fun, inclusive, and easy-to-access rowing activities. By providing a high-quality experience, the PRC is working to ensure that new rowers will continue with rowing as a healthy and fun outdoor activity. The main components of PeterboroughROWS include Outreach – visits to schools, business and non-profit organizations for erg sessions, Try-It Days – inviting the general public to give rowing a try on designated days, Learn-to-Row/Return-to-Row – evening and day time sessions where participants can learn and improve their rowing skills, Retention – Adult and junior rowing leagues to keep the interest of new and returning rowers which also includes winter program, and Club Events – which are held year round to help build an inclusive and welcoming community.
Despite the challenges of launching the program in March of 2021 in the middle of the pandemic, the program made good progress during its first year, particularly in the youth and student outreach component. The club first developed a curriculum to show how the program connects to the school fitness curriculum, which was successful in being accepted and in generating interest with schools. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, which prevented outside people from going into schools, they had to get creative with their programming and how they would go about delivering their sessions. They began running the sessions via zoom at schools with grade 7 and 8 students. The club would drop off the ergs at the school and broadcast the sessions from a nearby location to the students participating. The sessions proved to be a hit with the students and with restrictions loosened, plans for their first in-person session at a high school is in the works.
The club was also pleasantly surprised by the interest generated in adult rowers. An unexpected number of rowers over the age of 50 attended their Try-It days. The club had planned to run their learn-to-row programs in the evenings but found there was a demand for daytime sessions with this demographic, so they happily incorporated them into their programming. The club has hired both part-time and full-time staff to work year-round with the program, which provides an added benefit of developing coaching skills for staff.
In 2021, a total of 288 individuals participated in PeterboroughROWS programming, 184 of which participated in one of the club’s 12 Try It days. The participants were sent surveys at the end of the year asking for feedback on the programs they participated in. The program received positive feedback with the participants identifying several features of the program that appealed to new rowers such as feeling welcome, a sense of community, a sense of accomplishment, valuable time spent with coaching and the ability to adapt programming to individual abilities and preferences.
Entering year two of the program the club is seeing some positive effects of all the hard work they put in during the first year.
“We’re starting to see some carry over into year two of the program,” said Brian Love, President of the Peterborough Rowing Club. “Our high school program was struggling over COVID, and we’re now just starting to rejuvenate it. Some of the people from the schools who are attending either heard about it or participated in the programs we were running last year. Our learn-to-row programs have also been building with a significant number of juniors as well as adults. I think that comes as a result of our outreach into the community as well as into the schools. We’ve generated more profile in the community thanks to the PeterboroughROWS program.”
The club plans on taking their findings from Year 1 and incorporating it into Years 2 and 3 of the program. Some of the suggestions for Year 2 include slightly longer sessions to allow for more time on the water, more ‘fun rows’ where the participants will race in different boats, running more Try-It days, and having an even greater presence in the Peterborough community.
To learn more about the Peterborough Rowing Club visit https://www.peterboroughrowingclub.com/.
