Tuesday morning - we had ten volunteers and coxswains arrive at CRI at 3:30am sharp.  Yes that's right, 3:30am, 0'Dark hundred.  It is not your average volunteer that is willing to show up that early.  We had Emily Dwyer, Nina Boyer, Ajit Jhangiani, Anita Meiklejohn, Beth Yudelman, Chase Ackerman, Kim Rocco, Caitlain McDonald, Stephanie Gavell, and Theresa Welsh all there for the early morning prep. They were met with coffee and donuts to start the prepping of loading boxes, prepping coaches launches and tying up the barges to the launches for transporting to the Basin.  This group helped us get off to an on time start down the river at 4:00am.  Our goal was to make the trip downstream before the river traffic got busy and we were able to do that thanks to the volunteers. 

Our trip down the river was easy and beautiful.  We were treated to a great sunrise and a placid, calm basin when we arrived at the esplanade.  We had 1 coxswain in each barge to steer and one volunteer in each barge to watch the tow rope, we also had a volunteer in each launch to watch the tow rope and help the coaches steer through the bridges.  We got to the esplanade in quick order to prep the barges and get ready for the Nike crew.  Before their arrival we were all treated to breakfast and more coffee on the esplanade. 

Once Nike arrived, and met us near Community Boating, the coaches went into action.  We only had an hour with the 28 Nike people, however the coaches got their crews working together and out into the basin rowing quickly.  They worked on technique and racing strategies with vigor.  The Nike crews loved the experience, especially with the Boston landmarks of the Prudential and Hancock towers in the background as well as the Hatch shell and the Citgo sign.  After 45 minutes the three barges lined up for a 250 meter race.  When done each participant took home a CRI Team Building shirt, a copy of Boys in the Boat, and each barge crew took home a medal.   There were lots of happy faces and big smiles from the Nike crowd.  Thanks to Vee Platzer, Brendan Mulvey and Patrick Larcom, our coaches for the day, we hit a home run with Nike.  Our coaches and Volunteers really made this a special event for Nike.  It's a rare organization that can pull together a crowd to clean dirty barges, get volunteers to show up at 3:30am for duty, and coaches that really worked hard to pull off a great event.  Congratulations to all and we look forward to many more successful events this year and the ability to share our sport with the greater community.