Blazing the Trail

Dear GPRF Community,

I’d like to begin by thanking you for supporting our work, our organization, and our future endeavors - we could not do this important work without you. 

At the end of 2020, the GPRF team set strategic priorities for the coming year. These included becoming a more philanthropic and more sustainable organization, and to grow and diversify our sport for young people. We’d like to share a progress update on these priorities, as well as a few of our proud moments from this year:

• In an effort to do more for young people, we realigned our resources and refocused our energy in two distinct ways. 

  • First, we committed to approach all that we do with a long-term athlete development lens. This means supporting social and emotional development, cultivating healthy bodies and minds, and teaching self-reliance and physical literacy, beginning with the middle-school age group - a formative age where sport dropout is prevalent. 

  • We also recognized a need to change our thinking as to how we approach BIPOC and socioeconomically diverse communities. Instead of forcing the rowing culture we know and love onto others, we need to cultivate a boathouse culture that is welcoming, curious, and encouraging so all communities feel at home in our sport.

• In service of our priorities, we developed two new, completely free programs for middle schoolers: 

  • The first, called Camp Lucy, launched this fall. Lucy Pocock was George Pocock’s older sister and a trailblazer in the sport of rowing. We’re honoring her while creating an inclusive space for young women, inclusive of non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming youth to feel strong, powerful, supported, and brave. We hope to blaze a trail for these young women in the same way Lucy Pocock did.

  • The second, an after-school program for middle-school youth from neighborhoods around the city, called Discovery Crew, will launch in 2022. Together, we will help young people gain access to rowing. 

• We visited our regional boathouse partners, to listen and learn from participants and leaders in an effort to understand the athlete experience and determine what resources the youth in our region need. Here’s what we’re hearing:

  • The current pandemic environment is challenging for our PNW rowing community. Decreased funding, added expenses for new safety measures, and canceled programs have left coaches and athletes without a place to row or socialize.

  • The COVID-19 crisis has given rise to more mental health challenges than ever before. We know that rowing is an outlet for these young people - potentially the only outlet they have. 

  • The pandemic has also created unprecedented financial pressure for parents of kids involved in sports and athletics.

In response to these concerns, we created a Regional Grants Task Force composed of staff and board members. In the new year, we’ll announce a new Grants program, to meet the needs of boathouses and their athletes. With this new initiative available to all, we plan to support the region with $100,000 in financial support. 

• We celebrated the opening of a new boathouse in the Kenmore community and provided over $25,000 of in-kind expertise and guidance to community members. This collaboration brings rowing to more youth, and we’re proud to be a partner in this venture. 

• We grew our crew, fostered relationships, and secured grants. We maintain that $0.77 of every dollar of our budget is spent on our youth programs. 

• We delivered ergs once again to schools around the PNW and the U.S. in the reopening of our Erg Ed program.

• We provided scholarships to athletes throughout the region so more young people can experience rowing without financial constraints.

• We built a new website to communicate the work we do in service of young people. You can see it all at pocockfoundation.org.

These are just some of our 2021 highlights, and we hope you’ll be inspired by the GPRF’s work to provide access to rowing across the PNW in 2022 and beyond.

Through a generous matching donation provided by the Schlaepfer Family Foundation, you have a unique opportunity this year to triple your impact; every $100 donated becomes a $300 gift, every $1,000 donated becomes a $3,000 gift, etc.

Our target is to raise $100,000 by year-end, ensuring the continuation of opportunities for the kids who need us most. As we blaze the trail for the future of our sport and the youth we serve, your support is paramount.

With sincere gratitude,

Jenn Gibbons, Executive Director