Letter to Parents - December 2024

Hello Case Crew Parents!

My name is Doug Rathburn, and I am the president of the Spartan Alumni Rowing Association (SARA). I rowed for Case from 1994-1997 and as president of SARA I help organize alumni and parents, raise money for the team, help coordinate events, and maintain the SARA web site. SARA is its own 501(c)3 organization and works very hard via a dedicated board and members to support the team.

The team has provided your email address to me to make sure you were received communications about the team. If your spouse/partner is not copied and you’d like them to be, please send me their email address. At any time you’d like to be dropped from the list just let me know as well. There are thousands of photos of the team over the years on the SARA web site and is the de facto repository of all things Case Crew. The team’s web site at https://casewesternrowing.weebly.com/ is a good source of information too.

I send periodic emails throughout the school year about events and progress of the team. If I ever forget to mention that parents are invited to something, please always assume you can come and participate. Our big events where we try and pull in alumni and parents are the Head of the Cuyahoga in Cleveland (3rd weekend in Sept), our Concept 2 January Erg Challenge where you can earn SWAG, and the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia (early May). The coaches have told me they are targeting Vails for 2025, and this is a great event to come spectate if your child makes one of the boats. This year's race will be May 9-10, and we should have an alumni/parent tent near the finish line with donuts and others watching the racing.

This year, 2025, will mark a huge milestone for the team as we transition to rowing out of our own boathouse! Since the team's founding in 1991, we've been affiliated with the Cleveland Rowing Foundation. But as children grow up and move out, we're completing a decades-long project to buy and develop our own boathouse to provide the resources to support a regional powerhouse rowing program. The boathouse at Zaclon River Landing will be the home for CWRU Rowing for generations to come as the sole tenant of the building on the best stretch of the river for training and racing. We've secured nearly $2 million in state and local grants to redevelop the overall site into a public access point for the river. The inside of the building will be private for use by the team, and we require donations to build out the inside to make it a "home". You can see more about the project here: Welcome Home Campaign.

We do ask, but it is completely not expected for parents to donate. There are many opportunities throughout the season to help if you can. Honestly, just supporting and encouraging your child’s participation on the team is the biggest gift you can provide. Crew provides structure and a guiding light during a stressful, time-constrained undergraduate experience. I won’t bore you with the number of doctors, lawyers, professors, businessmen, entrepreneurs, etc that we count as crew alums. People that can juggle school and competitive team participation generally go on to be successful later in life and are highly sought after in the job market.

We've created a simple parent page here: http://www.spartanalumnirowing.org/SARA_parent.html.
It should help get you started with the sport and the team. If you have any further comments or questions please don’t hesitate to email me or the coaches.

Thanks and best regards,

Doug Rathburn '97
President
Spartan Alumni Rowing Association