LYNN — Founder of the North Shore Maritime Center, Will Goldenheim, and Lynn Tech have partnered to introduce students to watersports.
Goldenheim said that this is the first Rowing partnership with the public school system in this city.
Thirty-two eighth graders, led in part by Beth Marrie, Physical Education Teacher from Lynn Tech, Goldenheim, and Director of rowing at the Maritime Center, Jody Klenk, led the students through a six-week training program before rowing on Sluice Pond.
The indoor rowing program was funded through an ARPA grant that Lynn awarded to Maritime Center. The city awarded the center $50,000 for this program, according to the city’s website.
“I really believed that everybody deserves access to water sports,” Goldenheim said. “When you look at the water and the people who get to use it, it’s not representative of the demographics of the City of Lynn. The mission is to provide access to those water sports.”
Goldenheim said that rowing changed his life and provided him with a pathway to college, and because of that, he wants to be able to offer some of those same experiences he had growing up to Lynn’s students.
He added that one of the benefits of rowing is that “research has shown that rhythmic sports have been shown to not only stop brain damage from past trauma, but have actually been shown to reverse and start to heal that damage, so rowing is an extremely powerful sport.”
Eighth grade student Jose Baez said this was his first time being able to row. In regard to the eight-week training program, he said, “That was cool! I really, really liked it.”
Rannie Uvaldl said she felt prepared to go out on the water for the first time.
Uvaldl added that the program was “pretty fun” and “I really liked it.”
Klenk said the event went “spectacularly.” She added that the students “really did extraordinarily well” out on the water.
“Where we came from at the very beginning, and (the students) not knowing anything about rowing, and not being sure whether they would even want to try it, to getting to that point and then having them get off the water and tell me that they had a really good time … it was very satisfying to me, because that’s really a leap for them,” Klenk said.
She said she hopes to expand the program so even more students in Lynn can have the opportunity to try watersports.
Marrie, who has over 30 years of life guard experience and is a self-described “water person,” said she was very excited to partner with the Maritime Center to teach students about watersports.
She said she would like to see this program implemented in the Physical Education curriculum for future years because of the excitement and enthusiasm she has witnessed from the students.
Gabby Ferullo, a volunteer at the Maritime Center, who was helping the eighth graders learn the basics, said, “We’re just really trying to get people the experience to row on the water, because not everybody gets that experience.”
Goldenheim said the Maritime Center has plans to expand this program “as much as possible.
“We have a lot of room to grow — and we are fully intent on doing that,” he said.
