PA Rowing Camps           

Amy Giddings, Founder and Organizer
amy@parowing.com

• PA Rowing Camps would like to create a boathouse for the residents of the City of Philadelphia.
• The boathouse would be of grand proportions not only to draw in corporate programs, but also to enhance the pride of those using the facility, visitors, and residents of the City of Philadelphia.
• Interest in rowing is growing at a rapid pace across the United States. This is largely in part to greater participation at the collegiate level and to the number of community boathouses being built each year.
• The need is great in the City of Philadelphia for quality programs for the community. The population most heavily targeted in this project is minority and economically disadvantaged youth. Participation in rowing at the youth level directly impacts character development, teamwork and group skills, values clarification, fitness, and confidence.

• Boathouse Row cannot accommodate for the influx of membership requests. The clubs on Boathouse Row were not built to handle large community rowing programs.
• The minority community and those who are economically disadvantaged have been virtually excluded from the sport of rowing in Philadelphia. Opportunities for quality coaching and participation simply do not exist for those without disposable income.
• Corporations have large training budgets and have expressed interest in rowing as a means for accomplishing a variety of training goals.
• The general community wishes to learn to row as a method of incorporating fitness into their lives.

• Minority Youth Programs (funded through corporate programs and grants)
• Community Programs (self-funded)
• Corporate Programs (self-funded)

• The first priority in location is West River Drive in the parking lot area east of Columbia Bridge. The location is close to the current facility for Philadelphia’s Rowing Programs for the Disabled. It is a high priority in terms of location because it capitalizes on the already established rowing venue on the Schuylkill River. Community programs succeed more frequently when they are not removed from the already established programs.
• The second area of interest is near Bartram Gardens on the Lower Schuylkill. The neighborhoods in the area surrounding Bartram Gardens would be well served to have the proposed community facility. The area is rowable and the potential for development is limitless.

• PA Rowing Camps first began to offer rowing programs for the community in 2000. In the summer of 2001 the programs were moved to the East Park Canoe Club in partnership with Temple University.
• The summer of 2001 included over 100 participants with no advertising or marketing campaign.
• The summer of 2002 again had over 100 participants and included online registration.
• The corporate program was very successful and the feedback confirms that there is a desire to continue.
• Previous to the summer of 2001, SRDC, the Schuylkill River Development Council, did operate successful programs for students attending any public school in the City of Philadelphia. Many of these students have successfully graduated high school and moved on to college and one was recently featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education for her full scholarship to the University of Texas for rowing.

• Karima Roepel

• Key Areas of Current Need:
  • Political Consultants
  • Business or Non-profit Experts
  • Development Coordinators
  • Motivated and Hard Working People!!!

• Support the program by contacting your respective City Councilperson, State Representative, and State Senator and express support for The Philadelphia Community Boathouse Initiative.