DE ANZA Middle School in Ventura offers after school and summer programs for kids to help working parents. Partnering with Casitas Rowing, the school district brings their students for a week of LEARNING TO ROW.
WANTED: Rowing Coach (POSITIONS FILLED 09/2023)
Casitas Rowing… Great programs, great athletes, would love more coaches.
Live in a beach city in California.
Coach on the most beautiful lake.
Work with great people in a positive environment where the staff are all supportive of each other.
Now hiring for:
High School Coach and a Middle School Coach.
Oh, and coaches to do private sculling lessons.
Looking for the right person, more than the right experience. Rowed in high school or college? Outgoing? Ridiculously positive? Sorta obsessive compulsive? Always talking? Love dogs? Rowing / sports have been an important and transformative part of your life?
…We pay great. You will have all the resources needed. We try to teach our coaches everything we know.
Apply with Wendy at 805-258-8622 cell and wendy@casitasrowing.org.
Casitas Rowing helping other teams with Outreach
Director Wendy Gillett gives presentation for USRowing and Stem to Stern on details of Casitas Rowing’s successful Middle School ERG CHALLENGE. This outreach program has helped transform their ability to expose our unique sport to over 3500 kids every year.
USRowing selected Casitas Rowing to talk about what works, what doesn’t, and the entire process of partnering with school administrators, creating curriculum, promoting, and what all is needed to knock it out of the park and grow the sport.
Casitas Rowing goes into PE classes for 5 middle schools in our Ventura Unified School District, bring excitement for sports in general, and an opportunity to try the rowing machines and race. Middle schools competing this year were Anacapa, Matilija, DATA, Sunset, and Cabrillo.
*** This year’s points trophy for the Middle School Erg Challenge went to Carbillo Middle School, congrats to the students and teachers on all your hard work!
LINK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gL7ifAM_eGKYlREGRvodmm0zcOoF2UDK/view
(Chrome browser may not play Drive .mp4 video, consider Safari etc)
Casitas Rowing speaks on “Empowerment Through Rowing” zoom
Date/time: Thursday, Dec 1 at 12pm ET
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvd-GqqD0pG9G5o_mJt3AoL1DS43F4HuNg
Description: USRowing finalize their monthly Title IX Celebration Roundtable series in partnership with Care Center Holyoke, a center that helps young mothers and low-income women stay active through expansive athletic opportunities and provides opportunities to attend college. Empowerment for women can be defined in several ways -- from education to self-efficacy to building confidence to having a sense of community. The Care Center Holyoke leverages rowing to do all of this and more so that women in their program have power and control over their own lives. USRowing will dig more into these topics, share resources and ideas, and hear from coaches and athletes about their experiences through storytelling.
CASITAS ROWING pushes for Critical STEM Classes
Director Wendy Gillett has reached out to the Ventura Unified School District and together they are designing and launching after school STEM classes in areas of our community that often are underserved.
These classes are for middle school students, immersing them in core critical areas focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
Director of Expanded Learning at VUSD Lorelle Dawes has been tasked with building a network of after school programs to support kids of our community’s public schools, exposing students to high end opportunities and activities during the hours of 3:30 to 5:30pm.
“Our collaboration with the school district will provide rowing field trips for the STEM students to come to Lake Casitas, and offer no-cost year round participation in our rowing teams” says director Wendy Gillett. “Our goal is to remove the barriers that many disadvantaged students run into, so we can provide access to activities that open many doors and help students excel”.
USRowing gives a foundation for these classes, through their STEM TO STERN program. Casitas Rowing was chosen to be one of 25 clubs in the US to be supported and mentored through their STEM TO STERN program, providing a launching pad for us to grow. We are very grateful to be working with STEM TO STERN and appreciate the mentoring we receive.
Big thanks to the early adopters like Principal Carlos Cohen of DATA middle School bringing STEM classes to his community and offering this to after school students throughout the county.
Women Supporting Women, the Amazing OJAI WOMENS FUND.
Ojai Women’s Fund generously supports Casitas Rowing by sponsoring free summer camps for kids in 2023!
“The OWF is an amazing group of local women, who support local organizations” says Director Wendy Gillett. “It is particularly special to us that we receive funding through them because they see first hand the impact Casitas Rowing is making. They know the kids personally in our programs, and see the results.”
Thanks to the generosity of the Ojai Women’s Fund this summers camp series will again be free to middle school and high school kids in the Ojai, Ventura, and Carpinteria areas. These no cost / inclusive summer camps have allowed us to offer rowing to now over 200 new kids each summer.
Always thankful to the Ojai Valley News for their ongoing support and reporting on local activities in our community! https://www.ojaivalleynews.com/
SOCAL Para Rower going to World Championships 2022
Wow, congratulations to coach Alice and rower Russell on winning trials for the adaptive PR2 mens 1x, and will be competing with TEAM USA going to World Championships in the Czech Republic, Summer 2022.
They have lately been at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista / San Diego preparing for Worlds.
Ojai Quarterly magazine "All in a Row"
We were honored to be highlighted in an article with the Ojai Quarterly Magazine.
So heartwarming that anyone would think about writing an article about us, and say such nice things. Thank you!!! AHHHH!! :-))… Lovely piece though, big appreciation to G Lev Baumel for the writing, Logan Hall for the photos and to Ojai Quarterly for such a beautiful magazine for our town.
https://issuu.com/ojaiquarterly/docs/summer_2022_for_web
(read the entire magazine, but, our article starts on page 106)
Casitas Rowing Celebrates 2022 Upperclassmen
Congratulations to rower Zeph Castel and coxswain Lulu Hottinger for winning Casitas Rowing’s BARBARA COLVEN award which is our “Spirit of the Classic Rower” trophy, and to Lulu Hottinger for for being the recipient of the CASITAS CUP award which celebrates athletes with a deep dedication and commitment to their team!
Thank you Poinsettia Pavilion Banquet Hall in Ventura for your support over the last decade with top level service and just an amazing location.
Ventura Air Pollution Control, Helping Rowers!
WOW! … “The VC Air Pollution Control District is generously helping Casitas Rowing begin converting to electric outboard motors!” Says Director Wendy Gillett. “Thank you VCAPCD!”
Doing our part to keep Casitas Water clean!
Not only are we moving to electric outboard motors, but the club has also built a solar array to charge the batteries so we are completely off grid!
“We have 7 coaching boats, and it will take time, but we hope to be able to convert all our motorboats from gas to electric, helping reduce water, air and noise pollution at the lake”
Casitas Rowing at VETERANS & MILITARY Job Fair / Expo
On August 20th our coaches will be Bringin’ the Heat with their ROWING MACHINE CHALLENGE at the Ventura VETERAN & MILITARY Job Fair / Expo! …GET DO THIS!
They are expecting over 300 participants, we will be ready for all of them.
Come visit us in the main stage room, UP FRONT! … table #26.
Can get on the rowing machine and give it a try, we will have our sliding seat as an option, and also our adaptive fixed seat setup for vets with limited mobility.
Sending a big shout out and thanks to Ramiro Guzman with Ventura Human Services Agency, and Tammy Bender our Veterans Program Coordinator. We are grateful for this opportunity.
https://www.ventura.org/human-services-agency/veteran-services/
Ojai Womens Fund, Saves Summer
How fortunate are we??!! Another summer of free rowing for our community of junior athletes, all thanks to the generosity and support of the OJAI WOMENS FUND.
This summer we have had the most participants… EVER! … with over 220 NEW ROWERS!
One more week left, and we will be saying goodbye to our camps, and welcoming in the FALL teams, for both adults and juniors.
