Laserfiche WebLink
From:christine carragee <br />To:Adam Edwards; LLRC Long Lake Rowing <br />Subject:LLRC boathouse <br />Date:Monday, February 24, 2020 10:15:41 PM <br />I'm hoping this email reaches the committee planning for the development of the Long Lake <br />beach park. <br />My name is Christine and I have been a rower off and on since 1997. I grew up in Philly <br />where the sport is popular and very competitive. I rowed for my high school and a local club <br />and then went on to row in college and post college in St Paul at a community club. Two <br />years ago I was contacted by some former teammates about an immediate need for a juniors <br />coach for the Long Lake Rowing Crew. I had taken 8 years off since I rowed competitively <br />and wasn't sure I would make a good coach having been so far removed from the sport. I took <br />a CRP class and meet with the former coach as well as the club director and decided to try and <br />help out since I had a flexible schedule that summer. <br />I was immediately impressed by the attitude, effort and capability of the boys and girls teams, <br />with a mix of kids from various public and private schools on the west side of the cities. I got <br />to watch kids form new friendship, build strength and fitness as they grew into their teenage <br />bodies and support each other at regattas throughout that summer and the following seasons. <br />Watching the dedication of both the student athletes and their parents who help run the club <br />and get equipment and food to regattas was extremely motivating for me. I decided I wanted <br />to get back on the water myself and was pleased to find that lake rowing in a single feels <br />MUCH safer than on the Mississippi where you have to worry about fast moving barges and <br />paddleboats which churn up wake that can suck small boats in toward them or swamp the boat <br />making it heavy or unrowable. Compared to my experience rowing I'm St Paul I have found <br />Long Lake to be a similarly welcoming community, but a preferable venue. I've come to <br />enjoy an occasional Saturday after practice breakfast at Birch's or heading to the Rooster bar <br />for a drink with my Masters teammates. <br />Now that I'm pregnant my ability to run or participate in other sports has dramatically <br />deminished, but I've found that sitting on an erg is easy enough on my hips that in my 9th <br />month I can still train with the team at the fire station. My pregnancy would have been a lot <br />less active, social and enjoyable if I didn't have rowing to fall back on. I drive 25 miles from <br />Highland Park to continue to be a part of LLRC because of their willingness to embrace <br />everyone from the juniors who Won the most competitive regatta in the US, the Head of the <br />Charles last fall, to some mid-60s retirees who are finding the sport for their first time. <br />Having a secure physical location to store boats will be helpful to this club in many ways. It <br />will minimize damage to hulls and equipment from the current dirty/ wooded hillside which <br />presents navigation challenges to avoid hitting obstacles getting on and off the water. It will <br />mean less work transitioning from the on the water season to winter training, by providing <br />year round training and storage in the same space and will enable better learn to row teaching <br />space for new rowers or interested community members. With a dedicated boathouse I think <br />the club can grow it's membership and diversity of age and ambitions significantly. It's such a <br />massive volunteer endeavor to keep the club running when the fundamentals of where and <br />how to store equiptment and how to train in inclement weather (which we have a lot of in MN) <br />need to be continualy reevaluated. Rowing will always be a sport which requires more time <br />and efforts to participate in than jogging or cycling, but it's team nature, low impact and the <br />joy of being on water make it worthwhile.