The Military Veteran Silent Auction Gala is just weeks away and I wanted to take a moment to shamelessly plug some of our donors and update you on some of the changes to our entertainment and encourage you to get your tickets earlier rather than later as later may be too late. But, before I do that, I wanted to thank all of you that read this newsletter. This newsletter, which goes out to approximately 5,000 rowers and supporters of Community Rowing in the greater Boston area is a large part of why we have been so successful in getting such terrific sponsors on board with us. While many people simply want to support this wonderful military outreach program, many more see it as an opportunity to reach a larger audience. Not a lot of boathouses can boast about such a large and diverse support group and you are a big reason for our continued success.

Rowing pad Company from Rochester NH has introduced 3 pads for serious rowers, 5 mm and 10 mm thick versions for the boat and a 20 mm version for the ERG. Please see www.rowingpad.com. These pads were invented and produced in the USA by a long time serious rower. All 3 pads will be part of our donated auction items and you can touch and feel them.

The Hyndsight Vision System is auctioning a rugged, rechargeable battery operated, water proof camera mounted on the bow of the boat with a wire-less connection to a monitor located at the foot stretcher of the single sculler or in the cockpit facing the coxswain. The System applies to all size rowing shells-singles up to eight's. The product provides 120 degrees of visualization and in excess of 300 feet visualization from the tip of the bow with accurate depth of field. Hyndsight Vision Systems, Inc. was founded in 2011 to enhance safety for all class of rowers and to promote recreational boating safety (sailboats and motor boats).

Shimano has generously offered to auction a SRD600 Foot Stretcher is equipped with a Virtual Pivot mechanism that allows the foot stretcher to rotate to keep the feet at the optimum power transmission angle as the rower's posture changes. This improves rowing movement efficiency and gives the rower revolutionary ease of motion. A binding between the SRD600 Foot Stretcher and the SRD600 Rowing Shoes completes the system. With this system crew members can use their own shoes; gone is the necessity of sharing footwear. Further, the independent binding units on the right and left sides can be easily adjusted to change the stance. Another advantage of the SRD600 Foot Stretcher is that it can be adjusted for installation in almost any boat regardless of manufacturer or type.

As mentioned, there will be a change in entertainment. Unfortunately, we will not have English Tom in the Bookstore, but we will have Elle Gomes. If you like jazz and reggae, you will love Elle Gomes. She is a prodigy out of Berkeley singing her own original music as well as performing one special song on this evening.   Elideusa "Elle" Gomes Almeida is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter, with a background in modeling and acting as well. She was born into a traditional Cape Verdean family (of West African and European descent) in Boston, MA. Elle discovered her passion for music while she was in the fourth grade, when she joined the school choir and later became part of the Boston City Singers. Since then, she has been studying music with the intention of pursuing it as her profession with a primary focus on songwriting and composition. You can hear some of her music here:  http://ellegomes.com/about.html 

And see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj2r4vLUdfY