Rochester Community Inclusive Rowing

Rowing with Rochester Community Inclusive Rowing (RCiR) changed my life! The five years I spent with them revolutionized my recovery. Growing up with cerebral palsy, many household activities that you may take for granted, such as opening jars and even just getting dressed, can be nightmarishly difficult. My parents didn’t think I was physically capable of living on my own or going to college. But then we found RCiR.

When I showed up to row the first day, I was timid and uncoordinated and the range of motion in my left wrist was nonexistent. I couldn’t even open a door with my left hand. Rowing changed all that. I found RCiR because my Mom was looking for a physical activity that I could do with my two hands together, and sweep rowing (in which you push a single oar with both hands together) seemed to fit the bill. But Tim and Dennis, the organization’s co-founders, had bigger ideas. They suggested I learn how to scull (rowing with an oar in each hand) and though I was initially hesitant, it proved to be one of the best decisions I ever made. As weeks and months and years progressed and I improved my rowing technique, I could feel the muscle fibers that had been tight and contracted for my entire life finally giving way. I could move my wrist for the first time. I could use my two hands together.

Since then, I have been rowing consistently with RCiR every weekend of the summer each year for the past five years and I have become an integral member of the community and a mentor to younger rowers. The difference in my rowing technique and the general function of my left side has been like night and day. I felt more confident on the water, and I could also see myself being able to do bimanual tasks with ease that I had struggled with before. It has been incredibly helpful in my recovery, and every time I open a door with my left hand I thank RCiR for making this happen for me.

For years, RCiR has been operating out of space rented from a boathouse on the Genesee River, which limited the services it was able to provide rowers, but the organization has recently built its own state-of-the-art ADA compliant boathouse on Black Creek in Rochester. Construction of the 5180 sq ft facility was completed in 2019 and includes boat storage and maintenance, an accessible dock, handicap bathrooms and showers, ergs for indoor training, kitchen and laundry facilities, and much more. This boathouse allows the organization to better serve the community by providing more people access to its services and helping others have the same transformative rowing experience that I have had. Once I started rowing at the boathouse, it was apparent how much of a difference this new facility would make in the quality of the services that RCiR provides. And, amazingly, the organization has held true to its motto: no one pays and no one gets paid; it’s all volunteerism!

The facility in total cost over $600,000, and over $225,000 was raised in cash and $200,000 in kind services and materials, but that still leaves $175,000 in debt outstanding. This debt, if left unpaid, could jeopardize the financial stability of the organization and its ability to provide services to the Rochester community and beyond.

Rowing on the water is an unforgettable experience that I have come to cherish these past years and your donation would allow RCiR to enable countless others to experience it as well, all at no cost. Your donation would allow RCiR to change others’ lives in the same way that it has changed mine. If this debt is paid off, the organization can continue to help others with challenges learn the incredible sport of rowing. Your donation will help change the life of someone you will never meet.