In 2013, I had the distinct honor
of being featured as one of the “Crew Moms of the Year” by USRowing, the
governing body of the sport of rowing, thanks to rower Frankie Maurice. This
was truly humbling, as there are so many deserving crew moms out there. To give the general public an idea of what
the mantle “crew mom” means, let me borrow the intro from USRowing’s piece on
Crew Moms: “Crew Mom is no ordinary mom. She wakes up early
and stays up late – preparing, collaborating, organizing and perfecting. She
shuttles sons and daughters to the boathouse for practice. She travels to
regattas. She deciphers the race schedule. She waits. She cheers! You can find
her at the team tent, stirring a big pot of [fill in the blank] on a chilly
morning. Or with the race volunteers, selling tickets and t-shirts, or parking
cars. Crew Mom does it all. Maybe she is your mom, maybe not.” – USRowing May
13, 2013
Spring Crew Season in the Hudson Valley starts
today, with the indoor meet. This year,
Mrs. Lo will be a program director, for the America Rows Newburgh program. My oldest (who got us all started in the
sport of rowing) will be playing travel
basketball for the Newburgh Panthers AAU team this spring; and Michael, at age
10, is in the Learn to Row program, which is non-competitive. I still have a lot of work to do for crew
season, but it is in the nature of grant-writing and fundraising to keep the
program alive, marketing and publicity to keep it in the public eye, and taking
6 kids to the America Rows Mid Atlantic Regatta in Baltimore the first weekend
in May. And of course, I will help out
where needed. My biggest food project
will be the Lasagna for the Eastern NYS High School championship in May, which
is the largest athletic event in the City of Newburgh, bringing in over 1,000
people. For all the new crew moms and
all those considering becoming one, here is Mrs. Lo’s advice for spring crew
season which, incidentally, can be applied to other areas of life:
1. FORCE YOURSELF TO REST. Remember when you had babies and they told
you to sleep when your baby sleeps? The
same thing applies to crew parents. Get
to bed early and nap when you can because you will be up anywhere between 4 am
and 5 am for morning practice and sometimes 3:30 when you have to be at the
Boathouse at 4:30 am. You know you’re a
crew mom when you look at the schedule and get excited about a 7:30 am
coxswains meeting because it means you get to “sleep in.”
2. BREATHE. And remember you’re human. You can’t do it all. You can’t even think about trying to do it
all. You may just say, “so what if all
the clothes are the same color?”
3. FORGET HOME COOKED MEALS. Unless you spent the winter canning,
preserving and freezing, you are not going to have time to make dinner every
night. Lucky for you, all of your
friends are now crew moms and you’re all in the same boat (pun intended). Anyone who is posting pictures of their
homemade food on facebook right now is either a football mom or a wrestling mom
but they are definitely not a crew mom.
4. PUT THE “FUN” BACK IN
FUNDRAISING. More and more sports are
finding they have to “self fund” and crew is no exception. In addition to morning practice before school
and pickup from afterschool practice, not to mention the actual crew meets you
will be driving to, cheering at and cooking for, many crew parents across the
country simultaneously have to fundraise to keep the team going. Car washes, bake sales, spaghetti dinners, it
can be relentless. Just treat yourself
to a Latte, throw your hair in a ponytail and drag yourself over there, chances
are you’ll have a better time than you would have ever imagined.
5. GET OUT AND ROW! My #1 piece of advice is to get into a Learn
to Row class for adults and get out on the water in a crew shell. It was not until I got out on the water and
started rowing that I made the connection – why parents would ever put
themselves through all the work and self-sacrifice for this sport. The truth is rowing is one of the greatest
Joys of my life. I’m certainly no expert
and I have no interest in the competitive side of the sport. But Recreational Rowing is so physically,
emotionally and spiritually gratifying, I really am at a loss for words to
explain it. After a particularly good
row, when you stop your boat to look at your surroundings, in my case, the
beautiful Hudson River and the Hudson Valley, you really will be left
speechless. It was my oldest who
encouraged me to get out there and try it and I am so glad that I did. I have been to indoor rowing all winter and I
can’t wait for the warmer weather so we can get back on the water.
I love
Recreational Rowing in the summer. The
craziness of sprint crew season is over.
I get in a boat with whoever is around, and Michael gets in his rec
single and goes out too. The joy of
being out on the water and watching your child, age 10, scull past you is
beyond words. It is the reason I do what
I do, and why I work so hard to bring this experience to the Student
Ambassadors, who currently make up the bulk of the Newburgh Rowing Club during
spring season. I hope other parents will
take advantage of the opportunity and get into recreational rowing too. For all
of the seasoned crew parents out there:
revv your engines, it’s go time.
And for all of the rookie crew parents out there: hang on and get ready for the time of your
lives!
Welcome to
Spring Crew Season 2014, everyone, and have a great day! <3 Mrs. Lo
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