Archive: Around Town

Members of the Cayuga Outrigger Club and Ithaca Kiwanis gathered at the Ithaca Youth Bureau Friday as Outrigger Club President PJ Rusello donated 24 paddles for youth paddling programs.  The two clubs partnered last August to host a luau and a demonstration of outrigger canoe paddling that raised the money for the paddles.  Rusello said that this is the first step in a partnership between this club and the Youth Bureau to support and expand paddling programs there as well as to grow interest in outrigger canoe paddling.

"We see it as a good way to broaden our audience and get some kids interested in it, he says.  "The Kiwanis helped us raise funds as part of the luau.  We're hoping to host the luau again on August 28th.  One of the missions of the Kiwanis is to support youth activities, so it works out well."

Outrigger paddling is a Hawaiian sport and tradition.  The local club's one canoe is 45 feet long and weighs 400 pounds.  It holds six people who paddle and steer the boat.  Five paddlers sit in a line, while the sixth team member steers from the rear.  In the traditional Hawaiian 'water change'  The first team jumps out of the boat while six others, who have been dropped into the water from another boat, climb in.  Members of the Ithaca club demonstrated this technique at last year's luau, paddling 39 miles from the top of Cayuga Lake to Stewart Park where the luau took place, and the Kiwanis joined with the club there to raise the money for the paddles.  They raised $450 to pay for the first 24 paddles.


Rusello gave the paddles to Recreation Program Coordinator Mike Armitage, who says that they will initially be put to use at the Stewart Park day camp, which runs seven weeks through the summertime and serves about 300 children.  But Armitage and Rusello say that the paddles will enable them to expand paddling opportunities for Ithaca youth.

Armitage says that the Youth Bureau has about ten sturdy aluminum canoes, but only a ragtag collection of paddles in various states of disrepair.  That has limited paddling opportunities he can offer Ithaca youth.  But the new paddles, sturdily designed for canoe rental businesses, will expand those chances.

"We have a waterfront staff and we teach sailing and canoeing," Armitage says.  "We would like it to be a little more extensive.  With a donation like this we're probably going to be able to offer more opportunities to kids.  We're probably going to do something either in the springtime or in the fall.  We're talking to the outrigger club about how to orchestrate that."

Armitage saw a notice of an open house for the outrigger club last year and contacted Rusello about a possible partnership.  That dovetailed perfectly with the outrigger club's goal to create some kind of youth paddling program.  The club, which is only in its second year, wanted to conduct an outrigger paddling camp for the kids last summer, but they didn't have time to put it together during the summer season.  Rusello says he would like to partner with the Youth Bureau, offering the boats and expertise for additional programs. 

Meanwhile the club is raising money to purchase a second outrigger canoe.  An event is planned for May 1st at which they will sell compost.  They also plan an open house at the East Shore Marina on May 22.

Armitage says that partnering with local organizations expands opportunities for the kids he serves.  He and the Kiwanis Club also partnered on the baseball program, and he notes the relationship with the Cayuga Outrigger Club is the third program he has gotten outside groups involved with.

Another luau is planned for this August to raise more money for Youth Bureau paddling programs.

"One thing I would love to see is an older age group -- the high school ages -- and form them as a team and take them to one of the outrigger races on the east coast," Rusello says.  "We hope to make another donation.  Doing it once is great, but doing it continuously is more appreciated."

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