Sport Relief Mile in Gateshead
(Update: This is now also highlighted on the British Rowing web site)
Volunteers from Tyne United Rowing Club left the riverside to head to Saltwell Park in Gateshead to run an indoor rowing event for the Sport Relief Mile on Sunday 21st March.
The club had been asked by Gateshead Council to help the Community Sports Coach in running an indoor rowing event as part of the activities happening at the Sport Relief Mile. The 2010 event was at Saltwell Park – Gateshead’s award winning Victorian era park – as ever with one eye on rowing on the water, Gav soon spotted the boating lake within the park and was deliberating as to whether he should ring up Chris to bring the trailer with one of the Learn to Row boats and put it in the lake, however he soon realised that this probably wouldn’t go down well with the Council events team, so he decided to stick to the ergos!
Never ones to pass up an opportunity to get the unsuspecting public on an ergo, club volunteers came along and were soon swamped with people wanting to give rowing a go. We were fortunate to have a wide variety of volunteers to engage with different members of the public – Linz with the women, Melinda with the kids and parents, Paul Armstrong and Paul Dodds with the men and vets and Stuart with the cheerleaders…
The ergos were packed all day with people using the machines as an ideal way of warming up prior to their run and kids using it as a good excuse for a race.
A screen and projector were set up so everyone could watch the racing and get a good view of the races that were happening throughout the day. We even had a visit from BBC Radio Newcastle who covered the event (all attempts to try and get the radio presenter on the ergo sadly failed…)
For the club this was a fun day out helping a great cause, combined with an excellent way of raising awareness of the club and our Learn to Row courses happening from Easter 2010 onwards. As ever we were the last to leave and even when trying to pack the ergos away, people still wanted to give rowing a try.
Many thanks go to Gateshead Council and Sport Relief for inviting Tyne United RC to take part in the days’ events and as always, many thanks go to the club volunteers for their constant hard work on the day (Paul Armstrong, Linz Charlton, Paul Dodds and Stuart and Melinda McCluskey).
