For University of Rhode Island women’s rowing head coach Shelagh Donohoe, community service is one of her team’s “main pillars” alongside “academic excellence and athletic excellence.”
As part of an annual effort to give back to the Narragansett community that is home to their boathouse and practices, the team spent Saturday, Oct. 7 slowly but surely moving more than 22 tons of dirt and gravel to create “smooth and safe” hiking trails at Canonchet Farms. In total, the team spent the morning covering more than a mile of trail with dirt in partners, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, according to third-year team captain Ellie McGee.
“These guys probably don’t hear [positive feedback] as much, but I definitely hear it,” Donohoe said. “It’s not to get a pat on the back. I don’t think that’s our reason for doing it. It is really to help out and to give back to the community.”
Seperate from the community benefits, the annual service initiative is also crucial for team bonding, according to McGee and Donohoe. Utilizing a “big sister, little sister” form of partnership to integrate the more experienced team members with the newer athletes, McGee outlined the importance of the experience so early in the season.
“All of us are laughing because it’s just chaotic, but we love it,” she said. “It’s fun for us to kind of be there and get back to the community, but also get to know each other outside of when we’re in the boat, because it’s very focused on practice time.”
For McGee, who has been participating in the event ever since her first year during the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience is vital in aiding new student athletes in the transition from high school to college. Each new member is matched with a current athlete, and the pairs begin communicating with each other before the year even begins, allowing the team to bond as a group ahead of the season.
“They kind of get firsthand experience of ‘Oh, do it like that, not like this,’” Donohoe said. “As a freshman, it’s a big deal for them. They have somebody to go to if they don’t want to come to me to ask me a question, which a lot of times these questions are better suited for them anyway. They can go to their big sister and ask them.”
For McGee and the rest of the team, these projects are an essential piece of their championship-winning squad as they gear up for yet another busy year, and the Narragansett community plays a large role in the fabric of their team.
“It’s good for us to do stuff like this…all the stuff that we do to try and get back to Narragansett because we’re out there in the mornings,” McGee said. “Not everyone wants to hear us yelling at five in the morning. So we try and give them a little bit back so that they don’t get, you know, so mad at us.”
With two races already under their belt this season, McGee and the team will continue action at the Princeton Chase on Nov. 5 in their penultimate race of the fall season.