December 24 Hour Row

The month of December has been nothing short of incredible for UONBC regarding fundraising. I wanted to explore the incredible efforts of alumni, parents and the athletes at our club throughout this winter month.

At 8pm on the 5th of December, handles were raised and 24 hours of rowing commenced. Over the course of the next 24 hours, over 76 athletes participated in rowing 1.7 million meters and biking a further 750,000 meters. To come together as a squad and show just how much we can do working as one is testament to the team-oriented philosophy we have at the university of Nottingham boat club. At this club we include everyone and bring everyone up with the people around us. Through the constant support of alumni, friend and family of UONBC we managed to reach a staggering £6000 raised in aid of a new men’s 8+. This means that we smashed our goalby 150%.

The sense of accomplishment and enjoyment gained from this event spread throughout the entire boat club with one athlete saying it was “tough and exhausting, but the constant support and club spirit made it something I am genuinely proud to be a part of”. Another athlete, who wore an increasing amount of kit when people donated to the cause through him, described the event as “hard, really hot” and that “ideally he would never have to do it again” but that he was also eager to see the boat club expand and update its fleet of boats.

The fundraising at UONBC did not stop here however, on the 13th of December, the boat club hosted its annual dinner,“Tiger ball”, at Colwick Hall. As the night saw coaches, alumni and athletes come together to celebrate the club’ssuccess over the past year, raffle tickets were being sold in the background. After, rather unfortunately, running out of raffle tickets to sell before everyone had a chance to get their hands on some, the winners were drawn and the atmosphere was electric. Raising over £630 for the boat club, the raffle was yet again another success.