Can you spare £10 to make sure the Great River Race survives?

[Rachel]

The Great River Race organisers are asking for financial support to keep going and be able to stage the event next year. We only have until Thurs 3rd Sept to donate on their crowdfunding page and try to make sure this fantastic event keeps happening for years to come. Those of us who have done the race in the past know how amazing it is and I'm hoping will want to see it continue.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-save-the-great-river-race


Here is the full email they sent  out ....

With this year’s Great River Race cancelled we have now found ourselves in the difficult position of surviving through to our next Race in September 2021. As a not for profit business we have minimal cash reserves and have lost our small sponsors (only for this year we hope) and grant funding that normally helps us through the year. We now have no income until next year but still have a small core team who plan for and organise the Race year-round and fixed costs such as premises, insurances and utilities. We did not qualify for the Government furlough scheme and do not meet the criteria for many of the funds out there to help businesses in this time of crisis. To date we have been helped by our very supportive landlords and a Small Business Rate Relief but having reduced our outgoings to a minimum we are still facing a shortfall to keep the Race going.
We therefore launched a Crowdfunder appeal - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-save-the-great-river-race which was due to close on the 30th. Sadly, although we have received amazing words of support, we have not been able to achieve enough of our target to help keep us going through to next year’s Race.
We have however managed to get an extension to Thursday 3rd of September so this is where we need your help! We appreciate that these are difficult times for everyone but if you are able to help us by donating now, no matter how small and by sharing this with your fellow crew members and Race supporters you will not only be saving the GRR team but an event that is a loved and valued advocate of traditional rowing. To those who have already donated and shared this thank you so much but we still have a way to go.  
This crowd funder could help to secure the long-term survival of The GRR so please help us if you can.  We aim to come back bigger and stronger in September 2021 and we really hope that you will all be there with us. Thank you.
Also, we thought you might like to see the letter below, received the other day from a seasoned GRR rower, who, when he heard about our appeal, wanted us to share his thoughts with everyone!
Kind Regards
Team GRR
The Great River Race
Unit 4, Willowbank
Claygate Lane
Thames Ditton
Surrey KT7 0LE
020 8398 8141    www.greatriverrace.co.uk
Save the date: Saturday, 25th September 2021

P.S. Please accept our apologies if you have already received this email
 
IN PRAISE OF THE GREAT RIVER RACE, PART OF OUR LIVES AND IN NEED OF A TENNER
Skiffs and boats of all kinds …but especially rowing boats have been a part of my life since I started messing about in them aged 13. First as a cox and then a rower I competed in regattas culminating in humiliating defeat at Henley in the Visitors Cup in 1977 aged 17.
            My racing rowing gave way to Art School and the rigors of student life which is in-compatible with hard athletic training, for so many lovely reasons! But skiffs and the River were still my abiding pastime. I learnt to build boats and continued to row the rivers and canals camping and traveling by skiff in the long summer holidays. My first Great River Race was in my own Edwardian camping Skiff “Clare” renovated from a blackened wreck given to me by Mark Edwards in return for a summers work scraping and varnishing at his boatyard. I proudly entered my first GRR in Clare beautiful in her newly varnished mahogany splendor. Like my experience at Henley ten years earlier my crew came nowhere in the hunt for prizes but we had a grand new experience.
            I had never rowed through the center of London, let alone in a small boat. Vulnerable to the huge swells set up by the river traffic. Unpredictable cross washes and waves bounced to and fro ricocheting off Sir Joseph Bazelgette’s stone embankments. Paddling down with 60 odd other assorted, mainly wooden boats past the houses of Parliament opposed by St Thomas”s Hospital, and under Westminster buildings as imposing and important in 1987 as they are today. This year both places and indeed the whole world, have been overwhelmed with the management and treatment of a global pandemic.
            Back then the race worked backwards downstream from the leafy grandeur of Richmond through the increasingly hectic and dense geography of our iconic capital city. The GRR is often called London’s rowing marathon, and it is a marathon. On the few occasions when I have put a serious crew together and really tried for an elusive pot it is every bit as tiring and awe inspiring in its length and prolonged pain as any marathon.
            But there the analogy ends, the river is open and huge offering the competing rowers views and smells and tumultuous emotion of the living water of the Thames. It is a three dimensional immersive experience whether you take five gentle hours or 2 and a half lactose screaming painful ones. Now with some 300 boats the experience is even more intense than it was in the days when everyone knew each other and we all helped pull ourselves aching from the mud at Greenwich and tried to re-hydrate at the bar of Poplar and District Rowing Club.
            The new route up from Greenwich to Richmond is more enjoyable, giving the excitement of the battle with the waves at the beginning of the race when you have energy for it, still to experience the pleasure of rowing past the massive looming bulk of HMS Belfast in your tiny boat. Then the increasingly rural feel as the race runs upstream through parkland and you can compare your own time against the Boat race crews, making an identical passage from Putney to Chiswick.
The rest of the course runs up towards beautiful Richmond and we are deposited on the bank at Ham with Youngs Best in a big beer tent and the  Jazz band and the long evening together sharing the same experience.
            Even though the race is now 5 times the size it was 33 years ago, with thousands of individuals making themselves into crews, it still feels like everyone knows everyone else. And this is because it matters not whether you have raced your collective hearts out trying to win or if you have pootled along dressed as superman or a bunny rabbit, you all have the same shared experience. I hope that feeling is still going to be there next year. Covid has so damaged our lives and for many it has been devastating beyond my worst nightmares. The loss of the race this year, as with so much else we have lost, is emblematic of our struggle with Covid 19.
What is unique about the GRR is that it is open to everyone.  I started a little rowing club 4 years ago and now the 30 or so people I have taught to row enjoy and are committed to it. My son Dom who won with his friends from Shoreham, three times when they were between 14 and 16 years old returns home from abroad to take part. All of us seasoned lifelong rowers,  as well as those very new to the game, all owe the Great River Race a debt of gratitude for the delight it brings.
            You can keep the Henley Royal Regatta it is a sorry shadow of an event compared with the socially inclusive Great London Great River Race. This event, like so much else, is threatened by the Pandemic, I for one want to do everything I can to have it there to enjoy again. So please stick a tenner in to help it over the line. I very much hope to see everyone in the beer tent and have a pint of Youngs Best next Autumn with you all.
Love,
Ben Fowler

[Alison b]

Many thanks for this....I donated a few weeks ago. Let's hope there will be a GRR 2021 !
Looking forward to taking part in future rows in Langstone Harbour 😊

[Sue Loveridge]

I can and will do. Sue

[Mike Gilbert]

Donated a couple of weeks ago... the Club has won 36 trophies in 20+ years. So is an important part of our Calendar... so help if you can!!! Mike

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020, 13:55 Rachel [via Langstone Cutters RC], <[hidden email]> wrote:

The Great River Race organisers are asking for financial support to keep going and be able to stage the event next year. We only have until Thurs 3rd Sept to donate on their crowdfunding page and try to make sure this fantastic event keeps happening for years to come. Those of us who have done the race in the past know how amazing it is and I'm hoping will want to see it continue.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-save-the-great-river-race


Here is the full email they sent  out ....

With this year’s Great River Race cancelled we have now found ourselves in the difficult position of surviving through to our next Race in September 2021. As a not for profit business we have minimal cash reserves and have lost our small sponsors (only for this year we hope) and grant funding that normally helps us through the year. We now have no income until next year but still have a small core team who plan for and organise the Race year-round and fixed costs such as premises, insurances and utilities. We did not qualify for the Government furlough scheme and do not meet the criteria for many of the funds out there to help businesses in this time of crisis. To date we have been helped by our very supportive landlords and a Small Business Rate Relief but having reduced our outgoings to a minimum we are still facing a shortfall to keep the Race going.
We therefore launched a Crowdfunder appeal - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/help-save-the-great-river-race which was due to close on the 30th. Sadly, although we have received amazing words of support, we have not been able to achieve enough of our target to help keep us going through to next year’s Race.
We have however managed to get an extension to Thursday 3rd of September so this is where we need your help! We appreciate that these are difficult times for everyone but if you are able to help us by donating now, no matter how small and by sharing this with your fellow crew members and Race supporters you will not only be saving the GRR team but an event that is a loved and valued advocate of traditional rowing. To those who have already donated and shared this thank you so much but we still have a way to go.  
This crowd funder could help to secure the long-term survival of The GRR so please help us if you can.  We aim to come back bigger and stronger in September 2021 and we really hope that you will all be there with us. Thank you.
Also, we thought you might like to see the letter below, received the other day from a seasoned GRR rower, who, when he heard about our appeal, wanted us to share his thoughts with everyone!
Kind Regards
Team GRR
The Great River Race
Unit 4, Willowbank
Claygate Lane
Thames Ditton
Surrey KT7 0LE
020 8398 8141    www.greatriverrace.co.uk
Save the date: Saturday, 25th September 2021

P.S. Please accept our apologies if you have already received this email
 
IN PRAISE OF THE GREAT RIVER RACE, PART OF OUR LIVES AND IN NEED OF A TENNER
Skiffs and boats of all kinds …but especially rowing boats have been a part of my life since I started messing about in them aged 13. First as a cox and then a rower I competed in regattas culminating in humiliating defeat at Henley in the Visitors Cup in 1977 aged 17.
            My racing rowing gave way to Art School and the rigors of student life which is in-compatible with hard athletic training, for so many lovely reasons! But skiffs and the River were still my abiding pastime. I learnt to build boats and continued to row the rivers and canals camping and traveling by skiff in the long summer holidays. My first Great River Race was in my own Edwardian camping Skiff “Clare” renovated from a blackened wreck given to me by Mark Edwards in return for a summers work scraping and varnishing at his boatyard. I proudly entered my first GRR in Clare beautiful in her newly varnished mahogany splendor. Like my experience at Henley ten years earlier my crew came nowhere in the hunt for prizes but we had a grand new experience.
            I had never rowed through the center of London, let alone in a small boat. Vulnerable to the huge swells set up by the river traffic. Unpredictable cross washes and waves bounced to and fro ricocheting off Sir Joseph Bazelgette’s stone embankments. Paddling down with 60 odd other assorted, mainly wooden boats past the houses of Parliament opposed by St Thomas”s Hospital, and under Westminster buildings as imposing and important in 1987 as they are today. This year both places and indeed the whole world, have been overwhelmed with the management and treatment of a global pandemic.
            Back then the race worked backwards downstream from the leafy grandeur of Richmond through the increasingly hectic and dense geography of our iconic capital city. The GRR is often called London’s rowing marathon, and it is a marathon. On the few occasions when I have put a serious crew together and really tried for an elusive pot it is every bit as tiring and awe inspiring in its length and prolonged pain as any marathon.
            But there the analogy ends, the river is open and huge offering the competing rowers views and smells and tumultuous emotion of the living water of the Thames. It is a three dimensional immersive experience whether you take five gentle hours or 2 and a half lactose screaming painful ones. Now with some 300 boats the experience is even more intense than it was in the days when everyone knew each other and we all helped pull ourselves aching from the mud at Greenwich and tried to re-hydrate at the bar of Poplar and District Rowing Club.
            The new route up from Greenwich to Richmond is more enjoyable, giving the excitement of the battle with the waves at the beginning of the race when you have energy for it, still to experience the pleasure of rowing past the massive looming bulk of HMS Belfast in your tiny boat. Then the increasingly rural feel as the race runs upstream through parkland and you can compare your own time against the Boat race crews, making an identical passage from Putney to Chiswick.
The rest of the course runs up towards beautiful Richmond and we are deposited on the bank at Ham with Youngs Best in a big beer tent and the  Jazz band and the long evening together sharing the same experience.
            Even though the race is now 5 times the size it was 33 years ago, with thousands of individuals making themselves into crews, it still feels like everyone knows everyone else. And this is because it matters not whether you have raced your collective hearts out trying to win or if you have pootled along dressed as superman or a bunny rabbit, you all have the same shared experience. I hope that feeling is still going to be there next year. Covid has so damaged our lives and for many it has been devastating beyond my worst nightmares. The loss of the race this year, as with so much else we have lost, is emblematic of our struggle with Covid 19.
What is unique about the GRR is that it is open to everyone.  I started a little rowing club 4 years ago and now the 30 or so people I have taught to row enjoy and are committed to it. My son Dom who won with his friends from Shoreham, three times when they were between 14 and 16 years old returns home from abroad to take part. All of us seasoned lifelong rowers,  as well as those very new to the game, all owe the Great River Race a debt of gratitude for the delight it brings.
            You can keep the Henley Royal Regatta it is a sorry shadow of an event compared with the socially inclusive Great London Great River Race. This event, like so much else, is threatened by the Pandemic, I for one want to do everything I can to have it there to enjoy again. So please stick a tenner in to help it over the line. I very much hope to see everyone in the beer tent and have a pint of Youngs Best next Autumn with you all.
Love,
Ben Fowler

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[nigel]

Langstone rowers will be well aware of the importance that the focus of participating in events such as the GRR has for our "global community".
We have benefitted from friendships and health benefits.
   This is certainly an institution which is worth your support, and - are if you choose to accept the " benefit" route in donating a paltry £10 to the organisation - you could benefit the Langstone Cutters with a free entry at the next planned GRR ( or your family)!!!

Better still, talk to friends and non-rowers to make them aware of this possibility to help the GRR, our rowing club (or their own family) !
Perhaps they will also be willing to dig into their pockets and help save the "race"

[BobbyClayton]

Done, it would be a shame if it wasn't there for generations to come
Fingers crossed they raise enough

[nigel]

18,281 pounds raised to date, about halfway there!!!
You (and your friends) still have 12 days in which to help!

Keep donating !  , ! , !  🚣🚣🚣‍♀️🚣‍♀️🇬🇧

[Matt O’Neill]

Just saw this and donated.
Such a great event and so close to the Cutters hearts!
Fingers crossed for a 2021 event!