It was a busy two days at Maskwa this past weekend with two tremendously exciting and successful regattas - the Peewee regatta on Saturday and the Bantam regatta on Sunday – in total about 1,100 people were here at the club over the two-day span.
The kids had a terrific time and Maskwa is certainly looking like a serious contender for top spot at this year's Peewee Bantam Champs with an impressive number of top five finishes. A shout out to Chris Haley who coxed our new War Canoe to Bantam mixed victory in its inaugural race.
I would like to say a very special 'Thank you' to all the volunteers who made it possible to host the regattas this year. Maskwa is a volunteer run, not-for-profit athletic club and relies on its members to support the activities of the children involved in our many paddling and swimming programs.
Thanks so much to Mike Haley who helped out in the parking lot and then pulled double-duty flipping burgers at the BBQ. Jody Pace was terrifically helpful in the parking lot, as was Geoff Morse and Bruce Piercey. Sean Gibson pulled two long shifts both days in the parking lot as well. And he deserves danger pay for dealing with a couple of unruly parkers!
Rick Davis, Connie Wright, Keith Billard, Perry and Mary Boudreau, Sally Campbell, Janet Steele, Tracy MacKay, Denis Chasse, Scott Conrad, and Peter Hope, helped raise more than $1,000 for Maskwa at the regattas by running the BBQ while Jesse Scott and Nathan MacKinnon helped out by selling 50/50 tickets. We raised $83 for Nationals.
A heartfelt thanks to 'The Man with The Golden Larynx' - John Moore - who's dulcet tones provided race results and commentary and who played at DJ both days as well. Renee Field did a terrific job supervising the regatta and keeping everything moving. Special thanks to our Custodian, Alex Hope for keeping the place so clean – especially the washrooms.
A special thanks to all the officials and coaches. Without your help there would be no regattas. We are very grateful to all the parents who volunteered their time to help as well as the parents who donated food and drink for the officials and for sale at the BBQ. Your help was massively important to the overall success of the regattas.
The food from the canteen was very well received and a shout out to Jennifer Spalding from Sweet and Savory Catering Limited for all the hard word and iced coffees on Sunday.
And, of course, a tremendous vote of thanks to the ubiquitous Gord MacLeod who supervised parking, set up all the signage, fixed broken faucets, and generally made sure that everything worked well throughout both days.
Maskwa is run by a Board of volunteer members who meet regularly throughout the year. A new Board of Directors is elected each fall.
Our club depends on the work of many volunteers and we welcome any member to join in. We are currently seeking new members to support the Board by providing help and direction for Maskwa’s paddling programs and for helping coordinate the various volunteer activities that are critical to the success of Maskwa. If you think you would be interested in helping out in either of these roles (or in any other
way) I encourage you to contact myself (maskwa.commodore@gmail.com) or Club Manager Renee Field (manager.maskwa@gmail.com).
‘Go Maskwa’
Ian Scott, Commodore
