River Sense Class with Sanchez Elementary School

Sanchez Elementary School

Students from Sanchez Elementary School arrive at Lady Bird Lake for River Sense Class.

On May 19th, students from Austin Independent School District’s Sanchez Elementary School arrived at Lady Bird Lake to participate in Texas River School’s River Sense Class. All students had studied “River Sense” and had taken a fun quiz on the Texas River School’s website to test our knowledge of the the 12 River Sensibles.

We put on our personal flotation devices (life jackets) and carried our ice chests to the dock of the Texas Rowing Center.

Students from Sanchez Elementary

Students practice their paddling strokes on the dock of the Texas Rowing Center.

We learned how to get in and out of canoes. We learned many paddling strokes: forward stroke, backward stroke, C-strokes and J-strokes. And we learned how to stop.

Lunch in canoes on Ladybird Lake

Sanchez Elementary School students each lunch in canoes on Lady Bird Lake.

Paddling west on Lady Bird Lake, we visited a small cove where we saw a Great Blue Heron walking in the water. We also saw many turtles and a beautiful white swan. We worked up quite an appetite paddling on that windy morning, so we gathered the canoes together, opened up our ice chests and ate a healthy lunch.

After lunch, we paddled back to the dock and safely got out of our canoes thanks to our teachers and the staff of the Texas River School.

Boys and Girls Club Summer 2013

Boys and Girls Summer 2013 024This summer, Rowing Dock sponsored 8 trips with the Boys & Girls Club of Austin! This was a wonderful opportunity for all of us involved and we are extremely grateful for the new partnerships formed. Since our mission focuses on taking under-served Austin youth on our central Texas waterways, this partnership with Rowing Dock and Boys and Girls provided us a great opportunity to not only take 116 youth on our Lady Bird Lake but also to introduce our new class at the Rowing Dock.

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New Office – the “Yard”

We have finally moved into our new office – which we have been anticipating for well over a year now. The office is situated in the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood in an old construction yard. Think warehouses, lumber piles, and unexpectedly a wonderful group of people that are all creative and inspiring local entrepreneurs.

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