I-Did-a-Row 2021

About this campaign

In December of 1996, an ad about rowing was posted on the community board of the Moose Pass post office (population around 200). The first meeting consisted of four interested women; despite none of them having any rowing experience, and true to the Alaskan spirit, they decided to give it a shot. Thus was created the very first crew in Alaska, the Kenai Crewsers Rowing Club.

Two of the members began searching for equipment and in February 1997 located two used eights at Gonzaga University. Through community donations, membership dues, and a no-interest loan by a club member, they raised $4500 to pay for both boats and a used set of blades. Transporting the boats to Alaska was a tag-team effort: Gonzaga trailered them to Seattle where local Seward business, Kenai Fjords Tours, set them aboard one of their boats and sailed them to Seward. The eights were then transferred onto a Carlile flatbed truck and hauled to the Trail Lakes Hatchery.

Marietta ‘Ed’ Hall, a former collegiate rower from Washington State University living in Anchorage, heard of the club’s endeavors and offered to help in any way she could. It worked out perfectly--she was anxious to get her hands on a shell again and the novices needed instruction.

In the summer of 1997, the club hired their first coach and learned to row.

Since that time, the club has evolved and relocated to the shore of Bear Lake in Seward, population 2,773. The KCRC fleet now includes two eights; two quads; two coxed fours; a pair; a double; and five singles.

Unfortunately, the club’s membership tends to ebb and flow. With Covid, membership has taken a steep downturn. The club dipped into its funds to purchase two new-to-us singles, knowing that rowers would probably not be able to sweep row until the pandemic passed. What the club didn’t realize was how long that would be. In December of 2020, the club’s biggest annual fundraiser had to be cancelled due to safety concerns surrounding Covid. The club’s bank account has suffered as a result of the lost fundraiser and lost membership dues.

Fortunately, the club has joined the countless other nonprofit organizations hosting virtual challenges and fundraisers. For the last thirteen years, KCRC has hosted I-Did-a-Row, enabling human athletes to "compete" against the dog sleds and mushers who are competing in the Iditarod. The I-Did-a-Row has taken many forms over the years, but this is the first year that the event will be held virtually, opening KCRC’s doors to the world.

The I-Did-a-Row is held in conjunction with the Iditarod, though the two events are not affiliated.

For the last 48 years, humans and dogs have competed in the ultimate challenge against each other and nature, racing across the frozen tundra, rivers, and lakes of Alaska in the Last Great Race: the Iditarod. This race was begun to commemorate the Great Serum Run of 1925, when the isolated and ice-bound community of Nome was threatened by an outbreak of diphtheria. Stymied by bad weather and the lack of a pilot capable of flying in the conditions, officials worked to find a way to deliver the desperately needed serum. Ultimately, it was decided that the serum would be transported via train to Nenana--the end of the rail line--and carried the rest of the way via dogsled, using the Iditarod Trail, which had been constructed in 1910 for mail and freight delivery between Seward and Nome, a distance of nearly 1,150 miles.

And so the serum was run by 20 mushers and dog teams, relay style, from Nenana to Nome. The mushers and their teams fought through winds as high as 80 miles per hour and temperatures that rarely rose above -40 degrees Fahrenheit, covering a distance of nearly 700 miles in six days and saving the town of Nome. The mushers and their dogs were truly heroes!

Now it’s your turn to be OUR hero! Help the Kenai Crewsers Rowing Club survive the pandemic by forming your I-Did-a-Row team and purchasing a shirt. If you’re not interested in the physical portion of the fundraiser, then feel free to just buy a t-shirt for yourself or someone you love!

The rowers, coxswains, and coaches of the Kenai Crewsers Rowing Club thank you. We are proud to be part of the incredible community of Seward, and the global rowing community.

Now get out there and row!