Brockport Community Rowing was looking forward to welcoming the McQuaid Jesuit rowing team to the village from a perch high on the Bicentennial Bridge above the Erie Canal. They were expected around 6:30 p.m. on June 7. Remarkably, the McQuaid crew— three sets of four rowers—rowed 60 miles from Buffalo that day, arriving in Brockport a full hour and a half early, missing the bridge fanfare and disappointing some late-arriving welcomers.
McQuaid’s Row for Hope is an annual event that, in seven days, traverses the entire length of the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany. Each year, it benefits a different charity. This year’s beneficiary was Rochester’s House of Mercy. As they have before, the rowers stayed overnight, camping in Harvester Park at Brockport’s Welcome Center. This year, however, BCR was able to store McQuaid’s rowing shell overnight in the Village’s boathouse. The boys gathered on the boathouse lawn for photos with BCR members, well-wishers, and their parent supporters. The Village Deputy Mayor handed out Village of Brockport lapel pins and key fobs for the Welcome Center showers and restrooms.
Inside the boathouse, the boys eagerly dug into three varieties of pizza, washed down with apple cider and lemonade, and topped off with specialty cookies, all courtesy of Brockport Wegmans.
Early the following morning, two BCR members saw the crew off from the boathouse dock headed to the Welcome Center, where their accompanying pontoon boat awaited. The Main Street and Park Avenue bridges lifted for them to pass beneath; they rounded the bend and headed to Pittsford for lunch.
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