• Chaotic Kayak Rendezvous Wrap-Up
• KAOS Camp Cool
• Easter Seals Adaptive Kayaking Clinic
• Easter Seals Active Duty Military Kids Camp

First, I want to thank you all for your support during the Chaotic Kayak Rendezvous, Susquehanna Valley TRR’s Paddle to Remember event. You sent out loads of good karma and we certainly took advantage of it! The weather was great (if a little cool), the river was running, and the grill stayed hot throughout.

We had a total of 23 paddlers (ten Veterans) coming from nine zip codes around the region, including one Vet from the Southeast PA chapter who brought her brother along to enjoy a day on the water. Everyone left with a full belly and a big smile, thanks to my lovely wife’s grilling expertise.

Three of our paddlers used adaptive equipment to help them navigate the Conestoga River on what turned out to be their first post-injury / post-diagnosis river run ever! They each had to creatively climb the rather steep embankment at the takeout and, frankly, I was somewhat awestruck by their tenacity and grit – the climb was not simple and, even with help, they each struggled to get “over the top.” But, their achievement on the river more than compensated for the sweat expended at the end the run. Well Done! 

So, you may be asking yourself what’s next?

First, be sure to keep an eye on our Events Calendar on the website. I try to keep that updated as best I can.

KAOS will be holding Kayaking Day at their annual Camp-Cool at Speedwell Forge Lake June 23rd. If you are available and want to come help vision-impaired and blind kids learn how to Kayak, let me or Jenn Eaton know!

I will also be reaching out pretty soon for help with a chapter first – we will be working with Easter Seals to help them with a new summer camp offering: Adaptive Kayaking! They’ve been doing adaptive water skiing for some time now and would like to try this slower, more accessible sport. I will need several volunteers to assist me and Easter Seals staffers on the water – we will be working off an island in the Susquehanna River; stay tuned for the August dates!

Anther Easter Seals event we’ve promised to support is their annual Active Duty Military Kids Camp. Children of deployed service members from around Pennsylvania will be adding Kayaking to their program. We plan to spend one day doing basic kayak instruction on a local lake, then we will group the kids into “platoons” and help them to self-guide down a local Class 1 river on a River-Cache exploration. The older kids will be Platoon Leaders (TRR staffers will be the Group Commanders) and will guide their younger platoon members down the river from geo-cache to geo-cache where they will retrieve snacks and the map to the next cache. This should prove to be an amazing adventure for them – if you’d like to be part of it, let me know! I will need at least one safety boater per platoon!

Finally, thanks to you all for making this chapter such a vibrant and enjoyable group! It is all about you…I am just grateful to be part of it!

Bill

Bill Butler
Chapter Coordinator,
Susquehanna Valley Team River Runner
717-951-8948
Bill.Butler@TeamRiverRunner.org
https://svtrr.org
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SusquehannaValleyTRR/
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