Newtown Rowing Initiative by Sarasota Crew

The Newtown Rowing Initiative provides provides life changing rowing opportunities to underserved student athletes in Sarasota County and its surrounding communities that have not been aware of, or had access to, the sport of rowing.

Newtown is the most racially diverse community of Sarasota, FL. Newtown is rich in history as it was the first neighborhood established in Sarasota by African Americans with undeniable challenges of racism and segregation.  The Newtown Rowing Initiative is Sarasota Crew's most recent commitment to being leaders in the movement towards social justice and equality, both on and off the water. Sarasota Crew acknowledges the history of rowing as an elitist institution, the privilege we have to experience our sport, and we actively work to dismantle the systems that cultivated this privilege. Together, we will work to build a more just and equitable organization for the Sarasota Community.

Booker High School is in the heart of Newtown. Sarasota Crew is working with Booker's postsecondary advisor and other Newtown community leaders to recruit at-risk youth from Newtown to learn to row and open up many doors they did not have before. We also will continue to hold learn to row events to recruit more and more new rowers within the Newtown community and Booker High School.

Sarasota Crew is committed to providing transportation to and from Booker High School to rowing practice for all participants in the program and has committed to offering scholarships for these new rowers. Sarasota Crew adult and youth members volunteer to work with the students as they learn to row and do everything needed to grow the program.

The rowers will have access to college pathways that were not open to them before. They will also learn a plethora of life skills such as time management, goal setting, how to follow and to lead, how hard work pays off and teamwork to name a few.

Sarasota Crew and the sport of rowing also become strengthened by gaining an even more diverse student athlete population. Of USRowing's (the sports’ national governing body) 86,000 members, less than 2% recognize as being Black. The Newtown Rowing Initiative reaches a more racially diverse group who are traditionally underrepresented in our sport. We started the program in August and already have rowers from Booker High School and the Newtown community coming to practice and locked in to the year! We now need your help to fund and grow the program!