We took delivery of our own minibus in July 2008, this will greatly alleviate the hassle element of the wet start programs enabling us to transport the children to and from the boathouse. During 2008 we begged and borrowed minibuses from a variety of sources to whom we are very grateful.
We ran another pilot during this year for Torry Academy, to try and see whether we could do the dry start in term 4 up to the summer holidays and the wet start in term 1 after the summer holidays. The dry start went very well where we had 93 P7 pupils attend the boathouse for between 4 and 6 indoor rowing sessions. The intention was then to offer them the wet start in S1, however the take up for the wet start was very poor, so this will be reviewed and revised prior to being run again during 2009.
Another low point in 2008 was the departure of Morag Emery to go and complete her teaching qualification. Hopefully we will see here back in Aberdeen on a full time basis soon. All the ASRA coaching team would like to express their thanks to Morag for her perseverance and enthusiasm during the initial pilot and also during the expansion of the project.
An end of year review was completed which highlighted that the dry start program was too long, so this has been reduced to 1 term for the 2009 programs.
Looking forward to 2009: The project continues to be developed as more schools are incorporated into the program. The project will be expanded into Hazlehead and Cults Academies during 2009. For 2009 Colin Wallace has taken over a full time position and session coaches are being sourced to meet the demands of the dry and wet start programs.
In October 2007 ASRA were successful in securing a Lottery grant of £269,773 from the "Young People Fund". This will enable ASRA to continue and expand the Dry and Wet Start pilot programmes, which have been operating in Aberdeen since November 2006 under the charismatic direction of ASRA alumna and coach, Morag Emery. The original pilot scheme was conceived and financed by Henley Stewards Charitable Trust, the Aberdeen City Council "Active Schools Programme" and the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association.
Twin highlights at the end of the first year of the pilot were the two invitational races at the Scottish Championships involving Dry/Wet Start rowers from Glasgow and Aberdeen. Kincorth Academy won one and Harlaw Academy won the other.
Kincorth winners
The Lottery grant will fund three part-time Development Officers and one full-time Co-ordinator's position across the four years of the project and will also enable ASRA to purchase additional rowing machines, beginners' boats and blades, a minibus and a towing vehicle.
Colin Wallace was recruited as the first Development Officer in November 2007 and this has enabled ASRA to expand Morag's pilot into two additional schools, St. Machar and Bankhead Academies. This rate of expansion will be continued each year until we have a total of ten schools participating by the end of year four.
Morag and Colin are at present working as a team in Harlaw, Kincorth, St. Machar and Bankhead Academies and are using the lessons learned from the pilot to update and restructure their development programmes for 2008.
ASRA is delighted with the progress of the pilot to date and is already reaping the benefits in the form of a substantial increase in its active rowing membership and the Committee and members would like to take this opportunity to express their gratitude to Morag for all her hard work during 2006/7 and to wish her and Colin every success with the expanded project.