TORONTO -- Member of Toronto’s Argonaut Rowing Club spent their Saturday morning rowing indoor to raise money and awareness for the sport.
The goal was to boost youth participation in rowing and so around 70 club members collected pledges and rowed for hours at a time.
Two members said they are planning to row for the entire 24-hour challenge.
Alex Burton and Jonathan Noga, two ergonomic rowers, said they started their 24-hour marathon at 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
Noga said this is the first time he’s ever rowed for more than two hours straight, and called it “a big step up.”
“Rowing doesn’t get the press it deserves because it does offer a lot in terms of goal-setting organization and teamwork,” he told CTV News Toronto Saturday.
Burton said he rowed for 24 hours during last year’s challenge, so he said he plans on helping Noga out during the challenge.
“It’s nice to have someone to back you up, and to give you tips and hints and to motivate you,” He said. “Especially at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., when you’re kind of sleepy and you don’t want to keep going.”
The club said it is raising money to encourage and enable young rowers to join a sport that isn’t exactly cheap, the club’s fundraising chair Odette Ziezold said.
“There are a lot of equipment costs [so] it’s not the same as running,” Ziezold said, adding that many services are offered at the club.
Last year’s challenge raised $22,000 to help pay for renovations to the club after flooding.
If that number is matched this year, Ziezold said that “it would significantly increase the number of juniors that we could bring in to the club.”
Lauren Tigart, 16, said she has been rowing for just over a year at the club.
While she was doing her part in the challenge, she explained why she loves the sport and why she’d like to see more young people at the club.
“If we get more people to join in the sport, more people would be able to do it. And they might just love it as much as I do,” she said.
The challenge wraps up Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
