Harlem River Community Rowing was founded in 2006 by a group of masters rowers looking for place to row in New York City. We are the only rowing program in the city geared specifically toward adults. Recent initiatives have introduced rowing to New York’s high-school and middle-school age children; Harlem River Community Rowing hopes to provide these generations of future rowers with a place to row for the rest of their lives.
Harlem River Community Rowing’s goals are:
- To expand waterfront and waterway access options for all New Yorkers
- To create affordable water-based physical fitness and recreational opportunities, especially for New York’s Upper Manhattan, West- and South-Bronx communities
- To provide on-water access for structured, non-motorized boating activities and instruction in the sport of rowing
Our goal is to create a community boathouse on the Harlem and to contribute to the re-emergence of the Harlem River "Sculler's Row" begun by the New York Restoration Project.
Like many of New York's waterfronts, the Harlem River’s waterfront has lain mostly abandoned, underutilized, or inaccessible for much of the past 70 years. In recent years however, waterfronts have undergone a renaissance as local organizations have worked to reclaim neglected areas and fill them with people, energy and life. The Harlem River Community Rowing plans to play a special role in these efforts, providing desperately needed recreational programming and promoting access beyond the waterfronts to the waterways themselves in partnership with local organizations like the Alianza Dominicana, Row New York, and the High Bridge Coalition, and the Harlem River Working Group.
HRCR members hail from all five boroughs of New York and beyond. Some of us learned to row in college or high school, others learned later in masters programs in other parts of the country; a few of us were students in our learn-to-row classes. We range in age from early 20’s to late 60’s. Our membership includes strong participation from the LGBT community.
We welcome both competitive and recreational rowers. Our members have competed in a wide variety of regattas, including the Head of the Schuykill, Head of the Fish, Capital Sprints, Independence Day Regatta, Head of the Connecticut, Montreal OUT Games, and Empire State Games.
We are an incorporated 501(c)(3) non-profit.
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