Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Rowing the Mississippi for a Million

On Saturday 22 March HTBS's friend Chris Partridge of the great rowing blog Rowing For Pleasure wrote about John Pritchard, Old Cambridge Blue and 1980 Olympic silver medallist in the eights. Pritchard has decided to scull in a Victorian skiff the entire length of the Mississippi. He will start on 2 August and it will take him at least three months to scull the 2,320 miles. Around 60 people will join him during certain legs. His 'outing', Mississippi Million, is a charity row for Right To Play, which is a global organization that, it says on its website, 'uses the transformative power of play - playing sports, playing games - to educate and empower children facing adversity. We reach one million children in regular weekly activities, and have a direct impact on the development of critical life skills that affect positive and sustainable change.'

With his row, Pritchard is hoping to raise $1 million.

Read Chris P.'s blog post here.

Go to the website Mississippi Million here (with video).

Go to Right To Play here.

Pritchard rowed for Cambridge in three Boat Races, in 1984, 1985 and 1986. The 1984 race became famous as Cambridge hit a moored barge and started to sink, with Pritchard in sixth seat - read more on that race here. He stroked the Light Blues both in 1985 and 1986, the last year to victory.

This blog post was updated at 9:25 a.m. on 26 March to reflect what is mentioned in Comment No. 1. G.R.B.

2 comments:

  1. The photo of Cambridge sinking is from the 1978 Boat Race, when Cambridge went down in rough water just after Barnes Bridge. The photo doesn't include John Pritchard. In 1984, when John Pritchard was at 6, Cambridge hit a moored barge during a practice start shortly before the race and broke the bows of their boat. The race was postponed until the following day, when Cambridge rowed in a boat borrowed from the ARA..

    Malcolm Cook

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  2. Thank you, Malcolm ~ yes, you are right, the photo is not from 1984. The article has been updated and the picture has been removed.

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