Love Rowing's Drinks Reception inspired us all!

The evening, hosted by Howden Group gathered donors, partners, clubs, schools, project leads and GB Rowers past and present to celebrate the success and impact of Love Rowing projects and the impact so far.

Love Rowing Chair, Cath Bishop opened the event. It was hosted and moderated by Martin Cross, Former Olympian, Commentator, Journalist who interviewed speakers from 3 projects. 

Speakers included: 

• Ash Wyatt and Shalarm Creary, The iBelong project, The Lea Rowing Club.
• Dr Sherrie Baehr, Founder, The Silverlinings Charity and Sean who is a Silverliner and a participant of the project at City of Oxford. 
• Nic Palmer, Principal, Hyndburn Academy, Rishton, Blackburn and David Blackham, Director of Rowing at Kings School Chester (who was sort of roped into speaking on the night as he is supporting Hyndburn School!) 

More about the projects: 

The Silverlinings Charity & City of Oxford Rowing Club

City of Oxford RC run monthly community rowing sessions in partnership with The Silverlinings Charity, supporting people who have been affected by traumatic brain injuries.

Participants described how this programme really opened doors for them, that they thought were shut. Many of the Silverliners thought they couldn't get on the water. By the second session at the club, they were on the water rowing! The positive impact on friends and family has been incredible. We are delighted just how much this opportunity means to the Silverliners and look forward to doing more with them across the country.

It was incredibly rewarding hearing the impact of the sessions on the participants at the event. It turns out Shaun lives near Hackney and linked up with The Lea Rowing Club at the event and will look to join a learn to row course at The Lea! 

Ready to Row at Hyndburn Academy, Blackburn

Hyndburn Academy was described as a failing school in 2014. The new Principal, Nic Palmer and her team have turned the school around to secure a Good Ofsted rating this year and have ambitions to continue the upward trend. 

The school has a canal running through its grounds which presents a huge opportunity. Nic told her story at the event and I don't think there was a person in the room who didn't want to help! 

Love Rowing is providing seed funding to Hyndburn Academy and at the event itself, Sam Townsend from Radley and David Blackham from Kings School Chester made the connection and are providing ergos, boats and equipment and coaching expertise! Hyndburn plan to start rowing in the spring!! We are delighted to support them. 

It's the beginning of an exciting transformative project.

iBelong at The Lea Rowing Club in Hackney 

Ash Wyatt and Shalarm spoke about their iBelong programme at the Lea. The Lea Rowing Club is on a mission to have greater representation of our local ethnically and culturally diverse communities. The club want people to be able to walk past and think ‘I can belong here’ #IBelong.

Shalarm was a participant from the iBelong initiative and is now a coach at The Lea Rowing Club. Shalarm was a fantastic speaker, telling the attendees all about his introduction to the sport.  
Check out Shalarm's behind the scenes video and hear his story HERE 

It was an inspirational evening, thank you to those who spoke and those who attended. 

Our next event is planned for March 2023. If you are interested in attending, please drop us an email at sally.corander@loverowing.org