Learn to Row Day

New Yorkers are often disconnected from their waterfronts and have no safe access onto the water where they can learn more about their own ecosystem and the role they play in its well-being. Most NYC school children cannot name three wild birds they might see in the water, or imagine that the East River is home to seahorses among many other fascinating creatures. Knowing that the estuary all around us serves as a fish nursery is a key to motivating others to reduce street litter and look for solutions to CSO that happens under heavy rain conditions. Furthermore, the East River is also the location for pilot clean energy projects studying how tides can generate electricity. We cannot be good stewards of what we do not know.

• Weekly, Tuesday at 5pm: Learn-to-Row, May through September for children with parents, and/or adults over age 18
• RSVP weekend longer excursions, mid-August through October, for rowers with Tuesday experience
• Community Boat Maintenance sessions November through April
• These activities take their toll on our boats, and in 2012-2013 we plan bi-weekly workshop sessions, locations TBD, for maintenance and repairs as simple as making new thole rings, or as complex as creating a new rudder, or turning new thole pins on a lathe.

Our free Community Rowing Tuesdays involve the public in learning to row traditional wooden (volunteer built) Whitehall boats on our estuary waterways. These require no carbon offsets as they have a zero carbon footprint. They also provide a form of healthy exercise for those need additional recreational activity. East River C.R.E.W. meets on the intersection of the Harlem and East Rivers where our davit is located at the end of 96th street on the esplanade by the East River. Our boathouse container is just behind Stanley Isaacs Park. At the E. 96th Street esplanade, our trained coxswains are standing by teach people (in groups of four to six) to row in short excursions out. We encourage people to come back to our RSVP rows during the later part of the season, when days are shorter. Our project connects people to the water in a safe way (10 year zero incident record) and provides a fun context in which to learn about the estuarine environment in most people's backyards.