Year End Thank You!

Hey Everyone,


On behalf of False Creek Racing Canoe Club and everyone involved with Paddle All, we want to thank you for making this year a successful one. Having only started up mid-summer we could not be happier with the way things went this year. We have a lot to work and, but a lot to build off of as well! Next year is guarantied to be bigger and better so stay tuned! 


For those who weren't able to make it out this year, we hope to see you out next year. Here is a little blurb from "Camp Without Borders" about their experience with FCRCC PaddleAll this summer,

"   Huge thumbs up to False Creek Canoe Racing Club PaddleAll program!! We can't thank     them enough for the awesome time we had. Sean and his crew members were extremely patient, thoughtful and helpful throughout the full duration of our session. Not only was the program safe, the crew at PaddleAll program were well prepared and supportive to all our various participants' needs. We had a tremendous time paddling on the outrigger boats which provided many of our participants an opportunity to experience something new! Many of our participants did not want to get out of the boats!!!

    We want to recommend this well organized program to everybody!!! You can be assured that you and your group will have an awesome time with the passionate individuals who run PaddleAll. Thank you once again for all your support and you can be sure of another visit from Camp Without Borders next year!!!

Sincerely,

Camp Without Borders   "

Thank you again, and we hope to see you out next year again!

Sean.

Aviva Community Fund Competition - We Need Your Support!

FCRCC PaddleALL - Vancouver's first adaptive canoe/kayak program for individuals with disabilities - urgently needs your support to win a grant from the Aviva Community Fund. 

Please vote every day for the next 15 days to help this program get to the next round: 

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf10945

You can also vote using your Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avivacommunityfund

Afterwards, RSVP to our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155934231168165

The Aviva Community Fund is extremely competitive, but with your support we may be able to win up to $50,000 for, and raise the profile of, FCRCC. Thank you for supporting your paddling community!

-

The recent designation of para-canoe as an official Paralympic sport for the 2016 Rio Games is a testament to the inclusive nature of one of the world’s fastest-growing water sports. Despite the increase in demand for adaptive paddling programs across Canada, there is currently only one club in the whole of British Columbia whose facilities are equipped to offer such a service.

This past summer, False Creek Racing Canoe Club (based out of Granville Island) launched a pilot of the city of Vancouver's first adaptive paddling program. While many youth and adults benefited from this grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative, we struggled greatly to provide adequately accessible facilities and sporting equipment due to a lack of funds. With the support of an Aviva Community, False Creek Racing Canoe Club is hoping to expand and improve upon Vancouver’s only adaptive paddling program, in the interest of engaging the local disabled community in the sport of flatwater canoe/kayak.

Please VOTE for our idea so that we may:

• Foster sustainable partnerships between the local paddling community and disability-oriented organizations around Vancouver
• Provide the disabled population in Vancouver with a permanent venue through which they can gain access to paddle sports and their physical, therapeutic, and social benefits
• Create leadership and volunteer opportunities in the intersecting areas of disability awareness and water sports for youth in the community

For more information, please visit:

False Creek Racing Canoe PaddleALL Blog: www.fcrccpaddleall.blogspot.com

False Creek Racing Canoe Club Website: www.fcrcc.com

False Creek Racing Canoe Club Administrative Office: False Creek Community Centre 1318 Cartwright Street (Granville Island) Vancouver, BC V6H 3R8

Drop-In Session Time Change

Hi Everyone,

Now that school is back, our Wednesday drop-in session times will be changing. Please note that starting this week (Wednesday September, 7th) that the sessions will run from 6pm to 7:30pm.


Hope to see you out!

Update: First Session Coming Soon!

Hello Everyone,

The FCRCC PaddleALL program is pleased to announce that we will be holding our first drop-in session on Wednesday August 3rd from 3pm-5pm! Sessions will run everyone Wednesday from then on! Please come out and give it a try if you are interested and spread the word!

To be able to paddle in our weekly drop-in sessions you must sign up for the program which has a seasonal cost of $30. Upon registering for the program, you are welcome to come out to any weekly drop-in session.

Just a few more disclaimers for the program:

- At this point, the program does not have access to any double kayaks, therefore participants must be comfortable with single kayaks - we do however have canoes which can have more than one participant in them.

- There is not yet a dock lift, therefore participants must be able to enter and exit from boats with just the assistance of the staff or your own companions

- When the tide is out, the dock ramp can become very unstable therefore if you require a power chair we ask that you transfer to a non-power chair for going down the dock ramp.

- At the moment we do not have any adaptive seats for kayak for those with spinal injuries, we hope to invest in some soon, so stay tuned for an update with that.

I hope to see and meet a lot of you on Wednesday the 3rd! Again, if you have any questions, concerns or comments please do not hesitate to get in touch.

 

Update: Time/Prices/Bookings

Hey Everyone,

Just a quick update with the PaddleAll program:

Weekly Sessions
     We are proud to announce that our sessions will be occurring weekly every Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 5pm. An exact start date is yet to be determined, but it will be sometime in the first couple of weeks of July. Keep checking back here for the official start sessions.

Group Bookings
     We would like to make group bookings available. These bookings will depend upon the date/time, and the availability of our volunteers. Do book a group session there must be a minimum of 5 participants. If you would like to inquire about a group booking please feel free to email us.

Costs
     Our goal when starting this program was to make it as affordable as possible. Having said that, costs of insurance needs to be covered by each participant. There is a one-time $30 cost which will cover your insurance for the whole summer. Group bookings' are $10 per participant - which only covers the one session.

Thank you all for the support we have received over the last few weeks. Keep checking back for updates!

FCRCC PaddleAll
  

Calling all participants and volunteers!

Hi everyone!

We are currently promoting for this summer's program registration! For information on scheduling and rates, please contact us at:fcrcc.paddleall@gmail.com.

As this is our inaugural year, volunteer coaches will be integral to the success of the program. We are also currently recruiting individuals who are interested in working with the special needs community in an on-water environment. Experience working with individuals with disabilities, and/or a background in flatwater kayak/canoe would be helpful, but is not required. Deadline to apply: June 24th, 2011.

Download volunteer application here.

We look forward to seeing you on the water!

First Post!

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to False Creek Racing Canoe Club's, and Vancouver's, first and only exclusive canoe and kayak adaptive paddling program. In the near future we hope to have a website created for the program as well as other outlets to check for updates and to get more info (Facebook and possibly Twitter). In the meantime, keep checking back here for updates and the goings on of the program.

Basically, we would like to open the program up to anyone of any age. Since this is our first year with the program, it is somewhat experimental and we don't have all the infrastructure and equipment that we would like to have. However, we will try to cater to anyone's needs independant of the physical and/or mental disability.

We are now accepting applications for volunteers wanting to help out with the program. We are hoping to have roughly six volunteers throughout the summer helping us with the program. If you are, or know anyone who is interested, please email us for a volunteer application form. We will try to find some way of providing a link to the forms online in the future, but for now this blog-style site does not allow uploading/downloading of files. There is a promotional flyer for the program as well. We will try and make it available for download in the near future, but for now please feel free to email us if you would like one. Any help with promoting the program would be greatly appreciated!

If you have any quesitons or concerns about the program, please do not hesitate to get in touch at fcrcc.paddleall@gmail.com.


Thank you!

Sean McBeath & Amanda Cheong
Program Directors