Delta Sculling Center: Finding fitness, inner peace – Stockton Record
Agency name: Delta Sculling Center/Where EveryBODY Sculls
Contact: (209) 298-8076
Website: deltasculling.org
History: Imagine you suddenly acquire a life-changing disability and no are longer able to walk or sit up in a chair. You might think all is lost. Where would you go in the Central Valley to find a way to get exercise or engage in sport? Pat Tirone (PT, DPT, Ed.D.) faced that question when she had to take her patients to the “closest” adaptive program, a bike-riding program in Berkeley. She also knew sculling uses almost every muscle in the body, in most cases through the full range of movement and with no gravity causing shocks to the body’s joints.
So in 2013 competitive sculler and coach Tirone founded Delta Sculling Center/Where EveryBODY Sculls so people requiring adaptations to boats could row beside those who do not. All stay fit in a sport where attention to every stroke puts aside everyday stresses and allows them to be fully alive. Since then, she and center’s committed volunteers have worked with scullers recovering from functional losses due to amputation, spinal cord injury, brain injury and other neurological impairments as well as able-bodied rowers.
This year, the center added a Freedom Rows program for military vets and active military and a Junior Summer Sculling program for underserved youth, ages 12-16.
Mission: Delta Sculling Center’s mission is to provide access to fitness, health, leisure and recreation on the California Delta through the inclusive sport of sculling (a symmetrical form of rowing). DSC makes sculling available to everyone, regardless of physical, cognitive and sensory/perceptual challenges. DSC adapts its boats and land rowing machines (“ergometers”) to fit individuals’ needs so that everyBODY can participate, no matter what motivation brings them to the center.
Participants include those who want to become more fit, regain/improve health, find a new sport, enjoy the natural beauty of the Delta, train for competition, improve their sculling technique, participate in an adaptive sport, and/or find peace.
Donating to DSC isn’t just a financial contribution. It is an emotional commitment to being part of a community of people making a difference every day to every life touched by our services.
Promoting sculling for all includes outreach that puts oars and opportunity in the hands of people who otherwise would not experience a sport and might remain isolated in their homes or impoverished neighborhoods. That includes people with disabilities; returned military veterans and active military (as part of USRowing’s Freedom Rows initiative); boys and girls 12-16 from underserved communities (through affiliation with USRowing’s America Rows program, a diversity-in-rowing initiative); and all able-bodied adults as well. The freedom of being out on the Delta lifts all their spirits as much as it benefits them physically.
Tirone enhances her coaching with her skills as a physical therapist and as a Yoga and Tai Chi instructor. All participants find camaraderie and a caring community environment at the center.
Your donation will enable this 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to reach more individuals to offer them the physical, emotional, cognitive, meditative and spiritual benefits of sculling. It will provide more programming and equipment needed to serve more people in the community, help send adaptive and financially strapped rowers to competitive events, and subsidize programming fees for those unable to afford them.
Having relied almost entirely on volunteer workers, stipends are also needed for coaches and their assistants who keep giving their time and energy to DSC’s mission. The center also seeks volunteers to assist the coaches, particularly in meeting the needs of the adaptive scullers and helping out with administrative and boathouse needs.
If you would like to make a donation, buy tickets for DSC’s annual Cajun Lobster and Shrimp Dinner fundraiser (which will be June 24, 2017), learn to scull, or volunteer at DSC, contact ptirone@deltasculling.org or call (209) 607-9876.
