The team visited St. Mark's Church, Tech Exchange, Meals on Wheels, South Berkeley Elderly Center, Redwood Senior Citizens Center, United for Success Academy, and the Oakland Boys and Girls Club. Each one of these service locations offered a unique opportunity for student-athletes to interact directly with members of the East Bay community.
"We are incredibly proud of our student-athletes for their engagement of service to the community," said assistant coach Patrick Schulkers. "With our team size, it can be daunting to get everyone an opportunity. The guys took initiative to organize their smaller groups and transportation. A credit to them for stepping up to the challenge."
Starting at 9:00 a.m., several athletes handed out flyers for the St. Mark's Church's new study hall initiative. From 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ten members of the team visited Tech Exchange to help test and package refurbished technology for low income households.
"We are fortunate enough to attend Cal, and even though I was born and raised in Australia, I feel like I am now a part of this community," said senior Jack Cleary. "It just feels really great to be able to give back to the East Bay."
From 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon, a large portion of the team worked with the South Berkeley Elderly Center, Redwood Senior Citizens Center, and Meals on Wheels to assist with lunch service, organize elderly homes, and interact with residents. The last two stops of the day from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. were with the United for Success Academy and the Oakland Boys and Girls Club. Student-athletes took the time to help with homework, talk about the importance of school and being active, play sports, and do arts and crafts with the children.
As these student-athletes gave back to the community, the program also received an incredible outpouring of donations from Cal Rowing alumni, supporters, and friends.
"It was a really special day for our Cal Rowing community," said Schulkers. "We saw over seventy people make contributions in honor of our student-athletes' efforts to give back to the community on Giving Tuesday. We owe a big thank you to Bobby Thompson and the Student-Athlete Development team for making this possible."
The student-athletes and their volunteer sites are listed below:
St. Mark's Church
| Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk |
| Nik Krebs |
| Hugo Van De Graaf |
| Mark Brinker |
| Marcin Pawlowski |
Meals on Wheels
| George Finlayson |
| Will Creedon |
Tech Exchange
| Jack Cleary |
| Chris Duval |
| Ethan McCoach |
| Steven Max |
| Cameron Smith |
| Parker Nelson |
| Sam Long |
| Mackenzie Bass |
| Bennett Stahl |
| Christian Le Doux |
Senior Citizens Center - Berkeley Student Co-op
| Andrew DiCandilo |
| Mitch Algert |
| Cooper Ball |
| Brett Vilk |
| Sam Horsley |
| Burke Wynne |
| Jack Gordon |
| Hamish McDonald |
| Trevor McEvoy |
| Harry Osti |
South Berkeley Elderly Center