Last week, members of the NFA Varsity Crew Team and Newburgh Rowing gathered enough hurricane relief supplies to fill a boat trailer used to haul crew shells, and handed them over to volunteers in Fishkill, where they were taken to hurricane victims in Staten Island.
“The community has come out to support the Crew Team in a big way,” said Coach Ed Kennedy, Programs Director for Newburgh Rowing and Head Coach of the NFA Varsity Crew Team. “When we are asked to help, we answer the call. And I have never seen anyone mobilize like the kids that came out to help. Crew isn’t like some sports where you show up for practices and games and go home. These kids are here all year round maintaining boats, maintaining the boathouse, the oars, the equipment, pulling out docks, cleaning up after the hurricane. We gave the volunteers from Cold Spring so many supplies they couldn’t fit it in one truck, they had to store them for the next truck. I have to thank Mrs. Latham, the ESL teacher at GAMS who collected so many non-perishable supplies. Our own crew families collected flashlights, rubber boots, paper towels, contractor bags, batteries and the like.”
Newburgh Crew Team Loads Trailer
Thomas Ryan Barkman, one of the Cold Spring volunteers said, “We can’t thank the Crew Team of Newburgh enough. Right now, there are many volunteers and professionals helping families, whose houses have been damaged, to demolish and clear/clean the refuse so that new walls and wiring can be established and power/heat restored. We are actually looking for volunteers to come down to the Rockaways and Breezy Point. We would embark from Cold Spring Fire Department early Wed morning, 6am is best for a full day, and optimum travel to and from the island.”
For more information on Newburgh Rowing, contact Coach Ed Kennedy at (845) 541-2313 or Team Mom Juliana LoBiondo .
To contact Thomas Ryan Barkman you may call him at 845-590-4329 or through email
