25 January 2018

Göran R Buckhorn writes:

On 16 September last year, the Stonington Community Rowing Center & Hart Perry Boathouse Capital Campaign kicked off at the home of Rob Simmons, first selectman of Stonington, and his wife Heidi Paffard Simmons. HTBS wrote about the kick off, see here. This $2.5M campaign was founded by The Friends of Stonington Crew, a support organisation of Stonington High School Crew.

There are three aims for the project: to build a boathouse on the Mystic River, named after Hart Perry, one of the great advocates for the sport who lived in the area and who died in 2011 – his dream was to see the Mystic River become a rowing center; create a location for the Stonington High School Crew and its equipment; and provide training and rowing programs for the community. The center, located in the Mystic River Boathouse Park, will offer year-round recreational, competitive and adaptive rowing programs for all ages.

Already in the beginning of November, the Friends of Stonington Crew had raised $325,000 for the project, which by now, January 2018, has reached $420,000. However, to give the fundraising an extra boost, a blog has just been launched to give news about the campaign. Editor of the blog is John Thornell, who is on the Friends of Stonington Crew (FOSC) board and FOSC Boathouse Committee.

Thornell was kind enough to ask me to write an introduction article to the blog which was posted some days ago for its soft launch. Please take a look here.

To find more information about the campaign, go here.