Upper Valley Rowing Foundation

05/28/2026

Questions? Email [email protected]!

05/24/2026

Have you signed up yet to help with Learn-to-Row day on Saturday, June 6th? Susan Brighton would be delighted for more hands welcoming new faces to the club and the joys of the Connecticut River.

Here's the sign-up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F4CABAD2CA20-64151620-learn #/

05/23/2026

Wishing the UVRF Junior Racing Program all the best today as they race for the Granite State Sculling Championship at home! This is the team's final race of the season and they next head into their final week of sun and fun and "free row" days!

05/22/2026

Next Sunday 5/31 is a morning of fun racing, potluck breakfast, and a welcome back to rowing "alumni!" Fun for all!

05/04/2026

Summer rowing program registration is open! Did you know we have scholarship funding available for participants?

https://www.uppervalleyrowingfoundation.org/?page_id=1593

11/22/2025

A great time of year to give back! Thanks to our CReW members for a significant donation of food and other essential supplies to the Upper Valley Haven! 😍

10/16/2025

Tremendous thanks to the Valley News for sharing the journey of UVRF's CReW team heading to the Head Of The Charles Regatta!

Discover the inspiring story of CReW, a rowing program for cancer survivors in the Upper Valley. Experience their resilience and camaraderie.

09/12/2025

Great for the competitive junior racing team to collect food annually during Hunger Action Month in support of the Haven! 360 # is a LOT of food for their Community Food Market!

07/10/2025

Delighted that NH Chronicle came out on the rive to learn more about our own CReW rowers preparing for the The Prouty and Friends of Dartmouth Cancer Center! 💓💓💓

06/23/2025

Protect yourself! 😎☀️😎

Free sunscreen is now available at 15 new locations across New Hampshire and Vermont, including by the dock at Kendal!

Thanks to the NH Community Sunscreen Dispenser Program, new dispensers have been added to parks, beaches, playgrounds, and recreation areas to make sun protection more accessible for everyone.

Whether you're walking, playing, swimming, or just enjoying time outside, don't forget to lather up. Sunscreen is one of the simplest ways to protect yourself and others from harmful UV rays.

New 2025 dispenser sites include:
- Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital Nature Trails
- Berlin Elementary School, Community Playground
- Berlin Middle High School
- Boys & Girls Club of the North Country
- Canaan Fire Rescue & Emergency Management
- Canaan Recreation, Williams Field, and Playground
- City of Manchester, Victory Parking Garage
- LISTEN Community Services Program Office
- Lyme Recreation Facility, Chase Beach
- New Ipswich Parks & Rec: Pool and Memorial Field
- Sunapee Recreation Committee, Dewey Beach
- The Granite YMCA
- Hanover Improvement Society, Storrs Pond Recreation Area
- Turning Points Network’s Shelter
- Upper Valley Rowing Foundation, Kendal Riverfront Park

05/15/2024

What a lovely letter to the editor in today's Valley News from homegrown 2024 Olympian Billy Bender! (at right in photo). We are proud of you Billy!

Thanks For Rowing Coaches

Thanks for publishing the VTDigger piece about my berth as an Olympic rower, (“It’s all for the asking”; April 26). At the risk of leaving someone out, I would like to acknowledge the many people in the Upper Valley rowing community who introduced the sport to me and hundreds of other students.

Julie Stevenson and Peter Kermond@ started the Hanover High School Crew team, one of the few public-school rowing teams in New England, right around the year I was born, circa 2000. The many friends of Hanover Crew, including Peter, Nancy Carter, Fred Cressman and the late Blair Brooks, worked tirelessly to support the program. Blair Brooks was also my next door neighbor, a highly successful former college rower, who nudged me and all of my siblings into highschool rowing; three of four of us have rowed in college.

Besides Blair, I’m grateful to my novice coach, Michael Stafford, and varsity coach, Andy Hilton, a great technical coach who coached me in the spring at HHS and in the fall along with many Upper Valley Rowing Foundation rowing coaches, including Erika Dade. Finally, I could not have asked for a better college coach than Friends of Dartmouth Rowing's Wyatt Allen and his assistants in my first years at Dartmouth, Al Monte and John Graves.

Of course I’m thrilled to be going to the Olympics. But I’ve had a lot of help from the Upper Valley!

BILLY BENDER
Norwich, VT