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Date: 9/5/2023
HOLYOKE — The Connecticut River will once again be the scene for the Paper City Regatta on Saturday, Sept. 23 where rowers will join Holyoke Rows in 4K and 2K races for all.
Starting at 8 a.m. and taking place at the Jones Ferry Lot located at 25 Jones Ferry Rd., the event features rowers new and old, all abilities, teams and individuals out on the Connecticut River rowing to take home the coveted prize of homemade pie, a tradition that has lasted for many years in the Paper City Regatta.
“I don’t like medals, I think medals are cheesy and commercial,” Holyoke Rows Director Stephanie Moore told Reminder Publishing with a laugh. “Everyone likes pie, so I think we started that because we thought it would be fun.”
The pie operation started inside the home of Moore before expanding to a commercial kitchen over the years. In the most recent years, a planning committee for Holyoke Rows has taken over pie logistics.
The races will be split into individual and team formats and interested parties can register as a single rower ($20), a double or pair group ($25), a quad group ($30) or an eight-person boat ($40). A “mixed” boat can be made up of any number of any gender. For more information on the event itself, sponsorship opportunities, and to register, visit https://www.holyokerows.org/paper-city-regatta.
Parking will be available on Main Street and at Dean Tech High School. The Jones Ferry lot itself will have an accessible drop off and pick up area available. Food and swag will be available for purchase.
The event itself has become a great opportunity for almost two decades now for fun on the river and continuing the Holyoke Rows mission to reach beyond traditional rowing populations to make river recreation accessible by eliminating the physical, financial and social barriers to participating in programs. Holyoke Rows began in 2000 with the simple idea that everyone should have access to river recreation, and as a nonprofit, have offered those in the region interested opportunities from kayaking and races to veteran’s dragon boating.
“We wanted to give our rowers a chance to race locally, and we also have a pretty big adaptive program and there weren’t many or any recent opportunities for that population,” Moore said. For Holyoke Rows purposes, adaptive programming helps people who have a disability or can’t access the sport without some support. “A lot of seniors couldn’t get a boat down themselves or wouldn’t feel comfortable on the river by themselves so even though they don’t have a disability, they’re included in the program. So really anyone who needs support to get help.”
Moore said it is great to be able to help those with disabilities or who need assistance get out rowing. A former college rower, Moore has used her experience to bridge the gap between the targeted demographic Holyoke Rows aims to serve.
“To expand what sports are is really important because I think we’ve had this image around sports that you have to be a good athlete, that you have to be a certain body type, that you have to have some level of competitiveness, and what we find is we get a lot of people who don’t fit those stereotypes and then come to rowing and all of a sudden they figure out how to do it, they want to be competitive and then they start to think of themselves as athletes. So, I think being a little more open to make it accessible to everyone doesn’t limit what rowing is or what sports are, it just expands them,” Moore explained.
The money raised from the event itself go toward youth programming through Holyoke Rows for high school and middle school programs that allow for students to participate for free. For example, other communities charge around $600 for rowing programs where Holyoke Rows is able to provide a free program for youth.
Moore said the goal for this year’s Regatta is to get started on time and make sure there are good races throughout the day.
“I hope everyone has a good race and a good opportunity to do well,” Moore added.