July Newsletter

Mark Your Calendar:

• July 19-20th RowON Championship Regatta
• July 25-27th – 2025 FISU World University Summer Games
• Saturday August 2nd – Work Party and Social
• August 3-10th – Royal Canadian Henley Regatta
• September 6th – GRC Moonlight Row

GRC Welcomes New Summer Coaches

We’re excited to welcome our summer coaching team to the Guelph Rowing Club! Erum Khan, Molly Bain, Sasha Maksym, Ceilidh Aho, and Meghan Harris; your energy and leadership are key to a great season.

Thank you for your commitment to our rowers and the sport. Here’s to a safe, fun, and successful summer on the water!

Learn-to-Row Regatta Recap

We hosted the 2025 LTR Regatta on Saturday, July 5th and it was another successful

event! Five crews competed with 25 out of 40 rowers coming out to row. This year’s

crews were: “Get Laid”, “The Bezerkers”, “Catch My Wake”, “The Royals” and “Morning Glories”.

The fastest time was 1:35 and it was a photo finish for gold and silver with just one second separating the crews! Thank you to everyone who participated in the event.

A big thank you to all the volunteers that helped make this event very successful.

High-Visibility Club Shirts

Hi-Vis Club Shirts Now Available to Order!
Stay safe and visible on the water with our new orange athletic moisture-wicking Hi-Vis shirts, featuring the club logo on the front and name on the back.

Proceeds go toward replacing the boats we lost last fall. Thanks for your support!

Racing at the CORA Regattas

Over the past 2 weekends, a contingent of 31 GRC masters, juniors, u23s and seniors represented the club at the Central Ontario Regatta Association races in Welland and St. Catharines.

Guelph rowers had a strong presence at the CORA regattas with lots of learning taking place and impressive results on both occasions. Big congratulations to the 14 rowers who raced in their first ever summer regatta and the especially the new single scullers who braved a fierce current at Henley Island!

Well done to GRC’s gold medallists at the CORAs, including:

• David Barker – Master’s Men’s G 1x
• Connor Wideman, Ahment Gulsaran – Senior Lwt Men’s 2x
• Meghan Harris – Under 23 Women’s 1x
• Simone Maksym – Under 19 Lwt Women’s 1x
• Connor Wideman, Lucas Thompson – Senior Men’s 2-
• Ahmet Gulsaran – Master’s Men’s A 1x
• Madison Thomas, Noémie Arsenault, Madison Tindall, Rosie Schwarz – Senior Women’s 4x
• Kristina Harris – Under 23 Women’s 1x
• Edward Vander Wilp, Peter Dunning, Nicholas Guido, Lucas Thompson – Senior Men’s 4-
• Meghan Harris, Kristina Harris – Under 23 Women’s 2x
• Madison Tindall, Madison Thomas – Senior Women’s 2x

Be sure to cheer on GRC’s summer competitive program as they head back to Welland this weekend for the RowOn Championships and to Royal Canadian Henley from August 3-10!

Trillium Grant Celebration Event

Trillium Recognition Event – A Success!
Our Trillium Grant recognition event was a great success. We were honoured to welcome MPP Joseph Racinsky (Wellington—Halton Hills) and Mayor Chris White (Guelph/Eramosa Township), along with a reporter from Rogers TV.

High school program athletes and coaches were also in attendance and gave heartfelt speeches. A highlight of the day: our varsity athletes took MPP Racinsky and his assistant out in a boat, a fitting way to showcase what their support makes possible.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a strong celebration of community, sport, and support. A special shout out to our Events Planning Committee headed by Jane McKinnon Wilson for its meticulous attention to detail, and to Rachel Wyatt for reaching out to the media.

Congratulations to Maddy and Ceilidh

We’re delighted to share that two GRC rowers, Maddy Vandermeer and Ceilidh Aho, have been named to the W4- for the 2025 FISU World University Summer Games. After a successful nomination and selection process, both U23 rowers will compete for Canada this summer in Duisburg, Germany, from July 25-27. Fresh off their first varsity seasons, Maddy (UBC) and Ceilidh (UoG) joined their respective schools novice rowing programs in fall 2023 before racing together in the U23 2x and Sr W8+ last summer as part of GRC’s summer program. This is the first time that either student athlete will row for Canada internationally, and it’s very exciting that they get to experience this milestone together. We can’t wait to cheer them on! Maddy and Ceilidh will be training in St Catharine’s before racing in Germany.

The hard-earned privilege of racing for Canada is not without significant financial cost to Ceilidh and her family. We’ve started a Go Fund Me to help Ceilidh pay the associated admin and travel fees, which total about $7000.

Please consider donating and sharing, if you are able to do so:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/ceilidh-race-for-canada-at-fisu-world-university-games

The rowing squad will be led by manager Garrah Parkes (Guelph/Guelph, Ont.), along with coaches Stephanie Marchand (McGill/Boucherville, Que.) and Mary Rao (Brock/Mount Hope, Ont.).

Ontario Adventure Rowing

International Guests at GRC

The GRC has welcomed some international guests this summer. Mariska and Kalina were visiting family in Ayr from the Netherlands and had the pleasure of Guelph Lake in June.  There are  wee pair of wooden shoes at the sign in desk as a thank you.

Then in July Margaret Curtis was here for work in Fergus and was blessed with perfect evening water that has been alluding us this season.

It is great to be able to share our beautiful lake and boathouse with others, it definitely reminds us of the hidden gem we get to row on. Both parties left an open invitation to reciprocate to GRC members. If you are traveling don’t be shy to ask a club to go out, like us they would probably be happy to do so.

August Work Party

The next Volunteer Work Party will be Saturday, August 2nd. Come on out for your regular morning row then stay for a while afterwards to socialize and help with some much need tasks around the boathouse.  We will be focusing on grounds & boathouse maintenance.

Hope to see you all on August 2nd – its a great way to get to know other rowers and complete volunteer hours.

Upcoming work parties are: September 6th, October 4th and closing in November.  With upcoming regattas and events, there will also be many other opportunities to volunteer in addition to work parties.

A big thank you to all the many enthusiastic volunteers who helped with the LTR regatta & work party on July 5th!

Dates for Work Parties: August 2, September 6, October 4

Website Refresh

We’ve Updated Our Website!
Our website has a fresh new look — check it out at guelphrowing.ca.
A big thank you to Eric Johnstone for his work on this project!

Whats New?

• Consult the new calendar to know when events are happening
• Reorganized and updated programs pages
• New Fundraising page

We’d love your feedback, so feel free to have a look and let us know what you think!

Fundraising Update

Help Us Rebuild – We’re Halfway There!
Thanks to the generosity of 25+ members, we’ve already raised $124,500 toward our $250,000 goal. An incredible halfway milestone.

Now we need everyone’s help to cross the finish line. Replacing our boats is a shared effort, and every gift, large or small, brings us closer to being fully equipped for 2026.

If you haven’t donated yet, please consider giving what you can. Every contribution makes a difference.

Let’s pull together and finish strong!

GRC Moonlight Row