Current club members of Maties Rowing, alumni, and volunteers came together over Facebook Live to row 300 kilometres during the team’s relay 24-hour Ergathon fundraising initiative.
This initiative took place from 9 to 10 August.
The Maties Rowing team hosted a relay 24-hour Ergathon where they row to raise the necessary funds for club development and membership assistance for 2021. PHOTO: Anke Nothnagel
“We knew that our club was short of funds from the beginning of the year. As our membership fee is already steep, we did not want to increase membership fees but decided to rather focus on raising funds throughout the year,” said Anke Louw, Maties Rowing chair and MSc Chemical Engineering student at Stellenbosch University (SU).
According to Louw, the club receives the majority of its funds from membership fees and often relies on making use of other clubs’ boats and boat parts.
“Rowing is a water sport that we do not have the freedom to do at the moment, but our indoor training consists of using the rowing machines (ergos),” said Louw. “We wanted the fundraiser to still be rowing-focused and thus decided a 24-hour Ergathon would be a good idea.”
Each participant rowed for one hour at a time, Louw said. Each member joined the livestream 15 minutes before their allocated time slot and commenced rowing in parallel with the previous rower for the last few seconds, to ensure that there was no interruption in the “fan moving time” for the duration of the 24-hours, said Louw.
Maties Rowing team member Johanna Engelhard participating in the team’s relay 24-hour Ergathon and helping the team clock 300 kilometers. PHOTO: Anke Nothnagel
“We are all spread out so each individual that has access to an ergo [did] it from home. Many have made plans to borrow or rent an ergo,” said Louw.
The initiative indicates that the club has its sights set on the future, according to Keeley Knutton, current member of Maties Rowing and LLM (Master of Laws) student at SU.
“The only way we can participate in any events for the foreseeable future is to have them online and for them to be on ergo machines,” said Knutton.
According to Scott Caroll, previous member of Maties Rowing and SU alumnus, the club always needs a bit of help as they do not get a lot of support from the university.
“It is a great initiative to raise awareness about the club but also raising money for students who cannot afford to pay for their membership fees,” said Caroll.
Current members of the Maties Rowing team, alumni and volunteers came together over Facebook Live to row 300 kilometers during the team’s relay 24 hour Ergathon to raise the necessary funds for club development and membership assistance 2021. INSTAGRAM POST: @maties_rowing
The second photo of the article was amended on 29 October 2020 at 07:54