Happy 20th Anniversary, BCR!
2020 marks BCR’s 20th anniversary! During this time, we take a moment to reflect on BCR’s founding in 2000.
With a vision to start a community rowing program offering an opportunity for anyone and everyone to learn to row, Cymber Quinn helped lead the movement to start BCR in April 2000. Planning meetings began among the University of Colorado coaches and college students. The CU team blanketed Boulder with flyers, posted notices in gyms, and published an article in the local paper to promote the creation of Boulder’s new rowing club. Cymber remembers the phone ringing off the hook with Boulderites eager to put their name and number on the list of new rowers.
BCR’s first meeting for new members coincided with the night of the Colorado Crew banquet, but when the meeting started, not a single person showed up. After a quick search around the building, Cymber found 70 people waiting at the wrong door. After the brief mix-up (and perhaps moment of panic on part of the planning committee), the meeting was a great success. The roughly 15 experienced rowers in the room were immediately assigned positions on the board and put to work. For another two weeks, future rowers continued to call in daily, and BCR soon had another 80 members ready to kick-off its first summer.
The early members, including Sue Coffey, Cinda Graubard, Hannah Gosnell, David Larsen, Darla Lamper, Mark Brunner, Tom Ryerson, Sarah Walls, Leslie Livingston, John Wood, Marcy Wood, Soren Moglesvang, and John Gontkof, worked tirelessly to create the smooth-running, inclusive organization we know today. Among the early members, Christopher (Tuffer) Dow was known as the safest, and most creative, trailer driver. He offered emergency launch support many times, and BCR would not exist without him. Richard Lingard, a former Leander member, provided essential insights to help BCR get off the ground in those early years.
BCR’s fearless leader, Cymber Quinn, in 2000 and 2020
In its first summer, BCR trained 150 novices. As anyone who has trained even one novice knows, that is no small feat. The CU students who stayed over the summer became coaches and coxswains, creating a fun, new experience for the college students who, until this point, had never been allowed to tell adults what to do. As college students, these new coaches and coxswains successfully taught the eclectic group of novices how to row together as Boulder’s first rowing team.
Like any new club, BCR faced the challenge of acquiring not only rowers, coxswains, and coaches, but also boats. The club was fortunate enough to receive several generous equipment donations in its first year. Most memorably, BCR rowers climbed into two rickety Schoenbrod 8+s. Remembering to bring tools in these boats was particularly important, as mid-practice stops to tighten the equipment occurred at least once a day.
BCR’s first gear from 2000
Cymber reflects that the early members of BCR gave an enormous amount of time and effort to build a sport that Boulder had not seen before. Rarely does an organization come together so easily, but in its early days, BCR truly felt like one big, happy crew of people working together towards a common goal. To this day, BCR continues to serve the needs of the community in the same manner as its early days: as one big family.
BCR was organized such that board members and volunteers each took on a specific, dedicated job, so that all responsibilities were distributed and shared among members. In this way, the club is truly Boulder’s team, as its many members volunteer to run the club and plan for its future based on the needs of the community as a whole, and not any one individual.
Cymber’s final reflection on BCR captures well a feeling shared by many, many rowers, coxswains, and coaches who have had the pleasure to share in its vibrant community: