07-27-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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