Outreach

 

As a club it’s important to us that we give back to the communities we come from. Each year we do a mix of fundraisers and outreach events to help our chosen causes.

Rainbow Races

Since 2017, we have run an annual afternoon of light-hearted racing sprint racing with scratch crews composed of Otters and rowers from other clubs. The crews wear coloured t-shirts to make Pride flags in their boats and each year we select a charity or charities to benefit.

Our race day in 2024 was the biggest ever, including over 100 rowers from 11 different clubs, and raised over £900 for Switchboard LGBT+ Helpline.

More information about this year’s Rainbow Races will be here when it is confirmed.

Outreach rowing sessions

We have worked with charities and other organisations to help introduce people to rowing, especially LGBTQ people who often face additional barriers to getting involved with sport. Recently:

  • We ran an Introduction to Rowing session with London Youth Rowing and LGBTQ youth charity METRO Youth, where a group of young people and staff from METRO Youth met some of the Otters and had a taster session on the water. This was supported by a grant from Nike, administered by Out for Sport.

  • We attended a Trans Sports Day, organised by London Royals Hockey Club, where we introduced attendees to the joys of the rowing machine.

  • We partnered with trans charity Not A Phase to run a ‘Welcome to Rowing’ day, including a taster session on the water.

Whitechapel Mission

Each winter we spend a morning at the Whitechapel Mission, a homeless shelter in London, to help cook and serve breakfast to those in need.