Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad Holdren.
Brad, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The Augusta Rowing Club started with a race back in 1984. City planners brought in several collegiate teams to stage a rowing regatta as part of their long-term plan to re-vitalize the Savannah Riverfront in Augusta, GA That year several key people in town decided to form the Augusta Rowing Club.
Several years later the United States Rowing Association decided to move their sculling center to Augusta before the Olympics and the US men’s quad that trained here in Augusta earned a silver medal at the 96 games in Atlanta.
After US Rowing moved on to Oklahoma City to be more centrally located, the club went through some struggles with leadership and membership.
Now we have a new mission and vision statements and we are growing again stronger than ever before.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Generally politics between the old and the young… politics between the competitive and the recreational… politics between the verbally competitive and the members who put their money where their mouth is… Lots of in fighting due to a general lack of leadership and a lack of a direction in which to be led. It was a bit like a heard of sheep trying to move a heard of cats across a river with no real reason to cross the river in the first place.
Please tell us about Augusta Rowing Club.
We row. Some for recreation, some for training/racing. But we row. We are also one of the leaders in community service in the Augusta area. Our members average nearly 50 hours of community service per year.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Started with a strong mission statement and put in place a strong vision statement so the club had direction beyond “we like rowing”.
Contact Info:
- Address: 101 Riverfront Dr.
Augusta, GA 30901 - Website: www.augustarowingclub.org
- Phone: 734-904-6685
- Email: augustarows@gmail.com
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
