Award keeps paddle fleet afloat at Steel City Rowing in Verona

A boat has one job: to float.

Every kayak, canoe and paddleboard at Steel City Rowing in Verona handles that fundamental task just fine, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t sustained a few dings and tape jobs.

Some of these vessels get daily use during the summer between the club’s members, youth programs and annual events, such as the upcoming half-marathon voyage to a couple of dams and back.

According to Jennifer Langzettel, head rowing coach at Steel City Rowing, most of the damage actually occurs on land from being dragged and going in and out of storage.

With 10 sit-on-top kayaks, eight sit-in kayaks, four paddleboards and a canoe on the way, each with a lifespan of at least 10 years, Steel City Rowing can ensure those excursions won’t be going away anytime soon — especially for novices.

“A kayak that might still be floating but has worn-out straps and duct tape around the gunwales … it can kind of reinforce some of the fears that people bring into their experience with the river,” said Will Brown, president of Steel City Rowing.

New paddles and life jackets also are being purchased.

The replenished fleet will come thanks to an $8,200 grant from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission through its R3 Education Grant Program, which aims to retain, recruit and reactivate the state’s anglers and boaters. Steel City Rowing will put up at least a 25% match.

Kim Garris, director of outreach, education and marketing for the commission, said the program supports “our partners’ work to get and keep people involved in fishing and boating, promoting healthier lifestyles and a love and appreciation of the natural world.”

Just over $200,000 was awarded to 19 projects across 17 counties.

In Southwestern Pennsylvania, that includes $8,000 for the Seneca Valley School District’s fishery, $7,500 for Pittsburgh-based Venture Outdoors’ “Vamos Afuera” program and $6,600 for Forbes Trail Trout Unlimited in Westmoreland County to boost outreach efforts.

For Steel City Rowing, the new vessels could bring more paddlers into the fold.

Langzettel said the kayaks may be used to increase the number of outings to nearby Sycamore Island, a 14-acre mass between Blawnox and Verona that is maintained by the Allegheny Land Trust. Existing programs will come first, though.

“We don’t want to outgrow ourselves,” Langzettel said. “We really focus on having that individual interaction.”

Rowers, who race long, thin boats in teams, are no longer the club’s sole priority, according to Brown. To that end, he noted the group’s updated mission statement, which vows to connect people to the Allegheny River through community, education and rowing — in that order.

“It is not an accident that rowing comes last in our purpose statement,” Brown said.

Steel City Rowing also has intensified its pursuit of grants and donations, which make up a small, but important, share of the organization’s revenues. The club wouldn’t have been able to build its facility on Arch Street in 2009 without such contributions.

“We pride ourselves on the fact that we can do a lot with a little when it comes to funding and grant support,” Brown said. “We’re pretty bootstrappy when it comes to equipment.”