Adaptive Rowing Open House
1 to 4 p.m. Saturday
Free of charge
Adaptive Rowing Summer Program
Saturdays, June 22 through Aug. 26
9 a.m. to noon
Cost: $120
JRow Summer Camp
All students in grades seven and eight are welcome.
Session 1: June 17-28, Monday through Friday
Session 2: July 29 through Aug. 9, Monday through Friday
Program fees: $190
Advanced Beginner Rowing Camp
For students entering grade nine through newly-graduated seniors
Cost: $190
Where: 110 North B Street, Hamilton
For camp times or more information, call 513-892-4672, email coach@greatmiamirowing.com or visit www.greatmiamirowing.com
Beth Crenshaw was born with spina bifida, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming an athlete.
And she’s poised to help people in a similar situation to become expert rowers as she begins coaching the adaptive rowing program for the Great Miami Rowing Club this weekend.
“Adaptive rowing programs are springing up all over the country,” said Frances Mennone, GMRC executive director. “We always wanted to start one, and now that we have someone like Beth, we can.”
A native of Louisville who recently relocated to Fairfield, Crenshaw started rowing in 2009 after a lifetime of trying other adaptive sports.
“When I was young, my mom worked with the Louisville Parks Department and created programs for the disabled, so I was always her guinea pig,” she said. “I used to do wheelchair tennis, softball, swimming and bowling. My mom always encouraged me to never let spina bifida hold me back. There’s no reason to.”
For the initial adaptive rowing program, which begins with a free workshop on Saturday and a Saturday morning summer program starting June 22, GMRC is working with the Spina Bifida Coalition of Cincinnati and local veterans groups, but the program is open to anyone with a physical disability, Crenshaw said.
In order to facilitate adaptive rowers, GMRC must adapt its equipment by use of fixed adaptive seats, lap and chest belts, additional safety launches, outrigger pontoons, small boat oars, wider boats and personal flotation devices, Mennone said.
GMRC has received grants from the Spaulding Foundation and the BAYADA Regatta, an adaptive program in Philadelphia, to get some initial equipment to get the program started, she said.
“Most rowing clubs will start without any adaptive equipment or an experienced person,” Mennone said, “so that puts us further down the field than other programs.”
“A lot of adaptive rowers can’t use their legs, so we use fixed seats,” Crenshaw said. “They can either use their trunk and arms or just their arms.”
The local group will also get some assistance from Crenshaw’s former program in Louisville, which also spawned Oksana Masters, a double amputee that won a bronze medal last summer in London.
Crenshaw said that people who want to come to the adaptive rowing workshop need only bring their wheelchairs to help them get to the launch site, a bottle of water, appropriate sportswear and “a sense of adventure.”
Once the program gets rolling, Mennone and Crenshaw hope to be able to send teams to some of the adaptive rowing regattas around the country and to open the program to anyone with a disability, including cognitive.
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