2025 Giving Day Has Arrived!!!
Dear Marist Rowing Alumni, Family and Friends,
The Men’s Rowing Team is down at spring camp in Fairfax VA and working hard in preparation for the coming spring. Meanwhile our giving day is approaching rapidly this coming week on March 26th! See the video below and/or read this letter for more info about the giving day timing, how to give, giving levels, and information about the team’s finances and where our fund raising money goes. As always we thank all of you who have participated in the giving day in the past hope you will join us again for this year’s event.
This year marks the 3rd annual giving day for the Men’s Rowing Team and the 2nd full campus giving day for Marist University. Last spring the men’s rowing team was most successful fundraising single organization on campus raising over $105,000 from 305 unique donors. This year we seek to do so again and are aiming for 350 unique donors and $125,000 raised from the event as well as targeting a win in the inter-team competition within the athletics department. All the info you need is either here below OR in the video.
When
The Official Giving Day Date is this coming Wednesday March 26th. The event runs for a full 24hrs starting at 12:00am on the 25th and ending at 11:59pm on the 26th. All gifts given during the giving day will count towards the team’s giving day goals (any straggler gifts will still go to the men’s rowing team but won’t count towards giving day competition or festivities). The Giving Day portal is open NOW and early gifts WILL be accepted and count towards our team totals and giving day activities! Those of you giving early will still have your gift counted but will not see it live on our GiveCampus website until the morning of March 26th.
Where and How
The best and easiest place to give is from our Marist Rowing website! Simply go to rowmarist.com/donate OR go to rowmarist.com and click the large “DONATE” button at the top right of the screen! On the donate landing page you can select to give to Men’s or Women’s Rowing. Clicking here will take you to our GiveCampus Website, the main landing page for all incoming giving day gifts! The giving form should be pre-populated with our team in the drop down menu. simply complete the rest of the form and submit your gift using one of the payment types offered. If you give early you will receive a confirmation email but your gift will not show live on our page until the 26th.
Where Does My Money Go?
100% of all funds raised on the GiveCampus portal goes directly to the Men’s Rowing Team’s Gift Account which is directly controlled by the the team and the athletics department for the purposes of the men’s rowing team! We do not pay any credit card fees or other fees to GiveCampus or lose any percentage to other areas of campus of athletics activities so you can have confidence that our team will receive the FULL benefit of your gift! The Men’s Rowing Team works closely with our athletics department and the Women’s Rowing Team to administer to the needs of our oarsmen and oarswomen. Each year’s goals for giving are different and depend on the team’s current stance and performance. In an effort to provide transparency about our team’s fundraising goals and activities and where our funds go I conduct a yearly “state of the program” audit for our Red Fox Navy Members to keep you up to date. This year’s State of the Program Address can be viewed here. I will offer a quick run down of the most recent year’s activities here.
Last Year we had a variety of goals centered around our fleet of small boats and continuing to create the safest most competitive possible ecosystem for our athletes. In 2o24 we entered into a fleet deal wit Vespoli Racing Shells (a long term goal for the team) which covers our pairs and coxed fours. The team will pay a fixed yearly fee over the next 6 years during which time Vespoli will build four new pairs for the crew and then one by one turn over our four coxed fours with new shells. The team already took delivery of our new pairs this fall and replaced our oldest four “Crocodile” with a new VHP four in time for our winter training trip this January! The team made the 2nd of 3 payments of $3000 to Vespoli for an older DXL eight (a match for the “Manley” that has been proudly named after coach Bill Austin and was christened this past fall at the annual Bill Austin Memorial Golf Tournament! In addition to the racing shells, we received a generous donation from Jeremy Abele ‘05 for a new set of oars enabling us to furnish our varsity eight with a fresh set of blades this past fall. Last year we purchased a new wakeless launch from RowAmerica. This launch was the first of its kind for our program and we have been delighted with its performance for the team so far! At the time of purchase we discovered some minor cosmetic issues with the launch and RowAmerica agreed to build us a new launch to replace it and allowed us to use the defect launch until delivery. Instead of returning this boat however we convinced RowAmerica to sell us the 2nd boat at a discount. Red Fox Navy fund raising last spring gave us the ability to jump at this opportunity and so we now have TWO large wakeless launches for our men’s rowing team! An exceptional improvement that has created increased comfort and safety for athletes and coaches as well as a much larger platform for visitors that simultaneously creates far less wake for the oarsmen on the water! The team worked with the women’s rowing team to purchase 8 new RowErgs from Concept2 as well as 3 new BikeErgs to help meet the needs of our growing team in land training. We also continued our yearly purchase of digital training platforms CoachNow (video review) and CrewLab (workout reporting and journaling) and also worked with Marist’s new Campus Safety director to get KeyCard access for the boathouse, a long term security concern at our facility that now allows the athletes and coaches access by swiping their student ID cards! In addition to all of these goals, we continued in 2024 to put away a portion of our giving day funds raised to roll over to the next year which is continuing to create a rainy day fund for men’s rowing for future ventures!
What Are Our Plans for 2025?
The team has 3 major goals for 2025. First we are planning to upgrade and update all of the shoes in the men’s rowing shells with a system from BAT Logic. This system allows the athletes to clip shoes in an out of the boats at each practice meaning that each athlete will have their own set of shoes that fits them perfectly. Each Athlete will have their own set of footplates and shoes that they bring with them and clip into their seat in the morning. This system will save both time and money allowing the athletes to invest in footwear that truly fits their feet specifically and creates a higher performance for the boat while simultaneously increasing comfort! The team is also looking to purchase in 2025 at least 2, possibly 3 eights of telemetry equipment from a company called Peach Systems. Telemetry offers the athletes the ability to see their wattage as well as force curves and catch and finish angles while rowing on the water as well as giving the coaches and coxswains the ability to see these metrics in aggregate both on the water and on land. This massive increase in data offers the opportunity for coaches and athletes to find who is truly moving a boat on the water in a more scientific way while simultaneously working to modify technique to match one another better. This is technology that we have been watching closely for the last 10 years and we are excited to finally be investing in it! Finally the men’s team is saving money for our next eight oared shell which we expect to purchase in the next year or two depending on crew performance and other factors.
Red Fox Navy Donations help the team to purchase and maintain the high equipment needs that are experienced by rowing teams in boats, oars, launches, trailers, trucks, ergometers, and all other physical gear needed to support the team. As a result, these donations allow the team to maximize our operating budget from the university using 100% of our yearly funding to improve the student athlete experience and create meaningful travel and competition opportunities for the crew.
Red Fox Navy Giving Levels
The Red Fox Navy is the name of our Marist Rowing Alumni Association. The giving day level for those looking to obtain or maintain their membership in the RFN is $20 for each year since you have graduated up to 15 years or $300. Family members or friends of the program should give $100 to join the RFN. In addition, the Red Fox Navy offers a number of honorary giving levels and Navy Ranks which are described here. Those who achieved RFN Rank last year are listed below.
The Red Fox Navy rankings are::
Red Fox Navy Member = $20 for each year since graduation up to $300, Friends and family of the team qualify with gifts of $100 or more
Lieutenant = Single Donation of $500-999 OR Donated 5 + years in a row to the Red Fox Navy
Commander = Single Donation of $1000-4999 OR Donated 10 + years in a row to the Red Fox Navy
Captain = Single Donation of $5000-9999 OR Donated 15 + years in a row to the Red Fox Navy
Admiral = Single Donation of $10,000 OR Donated 20 + years in a row to the Red Fox Navy
Commodore = A special commendation earned through the joint nomination of the Coaches, Athletics, Administrators, Advancement Office, and Red Fox Navy Leadership. Commodore status can be earned through exceptional leadership, exceptional financial support, or exceptional service to the team, team members or alumni.
Athletics Giving Challenge
This year’s Challenge is for a $5000 gift to the team that recruits the largest number of unique donors over $23 (the significance being the 23 varsity sports programs at Marist. We know that last year there was some nefarious tactics on the part of another team but the advancement office has committed to de-duplicating any repeat givers this year so there is no need to game the system. We are looking to see how many unique donors we can get over $23! This is not just just for the dollars folks but the clout! So get out there and donate and then get your friends and family to donate as well!
How Can You Help?
1) Donate to the Red Fox Navy at your annual giving level OR as a ranked member or at least over the $23 limit to count for the athletics challenge
2) Contact via text or call at least 5 former team mates to catch up and to remind them to donate!
3) Share your excitement and links to give on social media!
4) challenge at least 2 family members or people outside the team to join you in supporting a great cause with a donation of $23 to help us win the athletics challenge!
5) Help us cheer on Alumni, Family, and friends throughout the day!
Final Thoughts and Thank You’s
First I want to thank everyone who has given to the Red Fox Navy over the past several years including the overwhelming support of last spring and the ongoing enthusiasm for the sport of rowing and the Men’s Rowing Team at Marist. Working with all of you has been both personally rewarding for me and extremely productive and helpful for the goals and needs of the Men’s Crew at Marist. Your donations make a huge difference and we have proven that together small acts of generosity can net huge results for the crew. Last spring’s result was exceptional and showed just who we are as a team, as competitors and as members of this great rowing family and I hope you’ll join us this year in a similar show of support. In particular I want to thank Bob Missert, our RFN president who does fantastic work with all of our alumni rallying the troops and getting everyone excited and organized for activities throughout the year including this giving day. Our Red Fox Navy would not be where it is today without his efforts! Also a thanks to Bob’s board of various class and generation leaders who directly reach out to their own classes and crew mates. You guys are the communications network that helps to make this all happen! I wanted to thank our young alumni who last year gave at a rate of over 95% and especially to the class of ‘22 who achieved 100% RFN membership for the 2nd year running. It means a lot to coach Stratton and myself to have so much great buy-in from the crews that we coached ourselves! A huge shout out to those achieving rankings last year and ESPCIALLY to those of you who gave challenge gifts to the giving day. Your gifts go a long way to whipping up support for the team and we thank you.
Thanks in advance to this year’s Giving Day Lead Donors!
Bill Zabicki ‘66
Joe McHugh ‘73
Tom Duffy ‘75
Bob Sneeden ‘75
Wayne Schmidt ‘80
Fred Lorthioir ‘81
John Garrity’91
Parents of the Class of ‘26
More Details about these donors and their gifts will come out as the giving day approaches! We hope you’ll join us on the giving day once again to support the men’s rowing team or even hop on today and give early! GO RED FOXES!!!
