Wasatch Rowing Foundation

Your Donations are Needed!

After a few setbacks we are now talking with Salt Lake County to see what they are planning with the Jordan River Water trail funded by ZAP. We are hoping to be able to work with them and Salt Lake City to build a boat storage area for rowing shells at the trailhead on the Jordan River near 2100South or the Redwood trailhead park.

Your Support will be needed and welcome for this project.

Currently Rowing in Utah is fraught with problems related to weather on the Great Salt Lake and lack of water in the canal in the spring. We want to expand our rowing programs by leaps and bounds but to do that we need a base, a field to practice on. That field is the Jordan river and the Boat house that we want to build with grants and your donations.

Our Total Fund-raising Goal is about $100,000!
Sure we would love to raise that amount Today, but that probably won't happen. I think $10,000 would be a great target for the Love UT Give UT campaign, because I know you want to see me doing Cartwheels down the hall! Yes we will Video it and email it or post a link to it on the Website/YouTube. We have a site for the riversports center in mind but it won't be there for ever. Utah is expanding and there are extremely few locations on the Jordan River where a boathouse and rowing can work.

Is There Rowing in Utah?
For many years there has been rowing on the Great Salt Lake but rowing in Utah is currently a sport with a very low profile. We want to change that! After all why should a highly prestigious College and Olympic sport have only a minimal presence in Utah. The answer is a typical chicken and egg situation, one doesn't happen without the other.
The countless number of times I have heard people say "I didn't know there was rowing in Utah"

Far From Ideal
Our competitive Junior Crews need to train 4 or more times a week. The Great Salt Lake is far from ideal. Its a 30 to 45 minute drive or more from most Locations on the Wasatch Front. Due to its size a gentle breeze can produces large waves which can make rowing hazardous and anything stronger makes it impossible. For our Junior programs we cannot choose which days we practice and thus in the Spring we generally had to cancel a third of our outings and another third can feel more like survival than a good practice. We store our boats outside and all year long the sun degrades the boats, the salt water corrodes the fittings and gets in the motors of the safety/coaching launches.

Junior Rowing is now in Salt Lake City
They've found a place on the Surplus Canal that we can store some boats. So the two competitive junior crews have moved house and now thanks to the generosity of Mardian Equipment now operate from our Boat Stands and Shipping Containers out of their factory yard. They boat at directly onto the canalt and have had more outings than any previous years. That is of course if there is water in the canal! It is a surplus canal after all and recently there has been no water in the canal until the middle of April and our first competition is generally early April. This means we waste time moving boats and going back to the Salt Lake. A secure location on the Jordan river would give us year round access to water we can row on. We know we can row on the Jordan River, we just need a proper boathouse to operate from.

Help students go to College on a Rowing Scholarship!

You cannot afford college, good grades and good at sports but not quite in that top 1 or 2% for an athletic scholarship. Think rowing! Most people think of rowing as a college sport and largely it is. Okay no colleges in Utah currently row but did you know that (according to ecollegefinder.org) over 55% of females going to college to row get offered a scholarship and over 17% of males. Rowing is easily the best sport to get a college scholarship in.

Your donations should be tax deductable, see your tax advisor.