Letter to Parents - January 2012

Hello Case Crew Parents!

For some of you my crew emails are old hat, but for those new to the team please let me introduce myself…

My name is Doug Rathburn, and I am the alumni coordinator for Case Crew. As such, I am the president of the Spartan Alumni Rowing Association, SARA, which is its own 501(c)3 organization. However, SARA is 100% committed to giving the team the resources needed to be fast and at the same time serve as a connection for alums, parents and members of the community.

Your children have provided your email addresses, but if you ever want to be dropped from the list just shoot me a note.

If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to check out the SARA web site: SpartanAlumniRowing.org. We try to do a good job keeping the site updated with the latest photos and race reports. You can also see from some of the archive sections that your son or daughter is part of a long chain of achievement at Case. The rowing team celebrated its 20th anniversary this past fall, and we have over 350 alumni all over the world.

I myself graduated CWRU in 1997 in electrical engineering and economics. I’m currently the purchasing manager for the John Deere tractor factory in Mannheim, Germany. Most importantly (to some), I still try and row competitively on the masters (old people) circuit. The percentage of our ~350 alumni that are now doctors, engineers, lawyers, researchers and managers is quite amazing. Also, in any given year we have about 10-20 people still actively rowing or coaching wherever they landed after graduation.

So I want to thank you for letting your child row and welcome you to the “family.” If their experience on the team is like many of ours, your son or daughter will have a great time and will be a much more well rounded graduate. The skills learned while balancing work, school, rowing, partying, friends, Greek life, etc. are invaluable and irreplaceable at this age.

I’ve played and participated in many sports and activities in my life. Rowing is different. It requires an accountability, physical stress (in a good way) and level of teamwork that is not found in anything else I’ve seen. As such, it seems to attract people that maintain a lifetime connection to the team and sport. For such a young and relatively small alumni base, we’ve raised over $200,000 for the team in the last 8 years. These are people that will never touch the boat they donated or be coached by the person they pay for. However, the experience on the team was so profound and impactful they have decided to give back so generously. We just want your children to have the resources we didn’t have.

I am not soliciting donations here. Just supporting your son or daughter’s desire to study and row for Case is enough. Plus, we all know how expense a Case education is. But we have had parents give in the past, and if you would like to discuss some options just let me know.

For those of you new to the sport we’ve tried to create a small parent’s section with some background information on the sport: http://www.spartanalumnirowing.org/SARA_parent.html. If you have any other questions any time please don’t hesitate to ask. I also encourage you to attend a regatta (including the alumni regatta on April 14) and see what the sport’s all about.

Thanks and best regards,

Doug Rathburn
President
Spartan Alumni Rowing Association