Wish you were here

Where is here?

Here is with me and the many other ithaca College alumni, parents, friends, and team members who understand the enduring value of the IC Crew program, and who get that participating is even better than understanding alone! By joining our efforts together, we make the difficult easier, the distant closer, and the sometimes unreasonable delivered!

The IC Crew Endowment began back in the late 1990's and grows every day. We have big goals: top notch equipment for our athletes, dependable support equipment for our coaches, and someday, in the not too distant future, a IC boathouse that fully serves the demands of a first class collegiate rowing program.

All these goals have an associated cost, but who among us does not share the experienced willingness to take on some piece of any effort or cost in order to achieve the goals we with commitment set before us? Perhaps above all else, this capacity in our community defines the character and the spirit of the crew.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing a handful of my teammates together in Ithaca. In some cases decades had passed since we had seen each other, let alone cruise down the Inlet (be it glassy water or raging headwind). The feeling was superb as I again realized that together we had shared irreplaceable life and adventure, and, that I would still do anything for them, because I know that they feel the same in return - the unspoken deal sealed in our youth with sweat and countless oar-strokes.

This feeling is not reserved by me for a select few team members, but for all of you who have hoisted a boat, frozen your fingers on an icy Cayuga morning, numbed your muscles on the ergometer, and reached inside yourselves further than maybe your expected ever possible in order to be that IC team.

After 40 years, we each have over 1000 teammates. Most we don't know directly. in fact, most we have never even seen. I met some current IC rowers this past Spring who were not even born until well after my graduation from IC. Does that matter? Not to me. I would put my earnest back to the oar for the Freshman '09 as I would have for the guys in my Freshman boat in "77. I suspect that you would, too.

That is why I can persistently commit myself to giving to this endowment - not a ton at any given moment, but something, consistently, with dedication and persistence. That's the message; that is how as alumni we can participate and honor our teammates. I ride vicariously in an IC shell every day since 1981, and plan to do so for as long as I am in physical attendence (and then I shall let the residual gains in the endowment continue for me ad infinitum).

We know each other, you and I. When you are invited to give to the IC Crew, I hope you will not hesitate to do so - they'd do it for you!

Thanks.