Empower adults to discover the joys of rowing

The members of Rio Salado Rowing Club (RSRC) are reaching out to our friends, family, businesses and trusts to help us with our mission to empower adult rowers to discover the joys of rowing and advance their skills in a welcoming team environment.

Rio Salado Rowing Club is a membership organization that provides recreational and competitive rowing opportunities for adults of all experience levels — from beginners who’ve never held an oar to world-class rowers. We both sweep and scull, and rowing education is a major focus of our club. Our full-time professional head coach leads a team of USRowing-certified coaches who provide four levels of classes that enable athletes to progress from first-day-on-the water to rowing independently and racing. Rio fields a strong coed competitive team that competes in local, regional and national regattas. We welcome guest rowers from other clubs and offer adaptive rowing for people with functional limitations. Every winter we welcome rowers from cold places to our sunny, ice-free lake in Arizona for clinics led by world-class coaches from around the country. In our covered boatyard, Rio provides a fleet of well-maintained equipment and boats — from 8’s to singles — for use by classes, members and guests.

We are an all-volunteer, non-profit community of adult rowers — persistent rowers who have spent 30 years developing a vibrant rowing club in the unlikely setting of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. From 1991 until 1997 when Tempe Town Lake was created by damming a portion of the Salt River, our founders rowed by trailering boats to neighborhood lakes and distant reservoirs. Rio supports and works closely with Arizona’s junior and city-operated rowing programs as well. We are a self-sustaining organization that keeps operations afloat through memberships, sales of classes and clinics, and donations. Rio is especially grateful to many individuals and to the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority (AZSTA) and the AmerisourceBergen Foundation for their generous support.

As a small program, we are dependent on the generosity of others, which includes the FY2024 AZSTA Biennial Grant to ensure we have the equipment that we need. In order to take full advantage of this grant we MUST raise a minimum 66% of our funding goal.

To ensure RSRC can deliver on our mission, we have identified a short list of equipment needs from coaching launches to safety and rowing equipment. And that is where you come in!

We need your help. We are currently looking to raise $100,000.

Any help is greatly appreciated, $5, $50, $500, $5,000... Know that with the AZSTA Biennial Grant, every two dollars we raise up to $29,000 will be matched by an additional $1! This is an incredible opportunity to help and use your donation as a tax write-off since we are a 501c non-profit!

Thank you in advance for your support. Your donation, no matter the size, will have a huge impact on and ensure we will continue to provide our community for many years to come.