I am happy to report that our first ever Million Meter Row-A-Thon was a huge success!
When we established the Row to Slow Parkinson's on January 1, 2020, it was intended to raise the awareness of the importance of exercise for those living with Parkinson's disease. We did that in 2020 with several individuals rowing throughout the year, with many achieving 1,000,000 meters or more before the end of 2020.
With more availability of rowers and exercise facilities in 2021, we launched the MillIon Meter Row-A-Thon for October 23, 2021. We hoped that we could get enough people to row as many meters as they could on the day and accumulate to 1 Million in total. We ended up with several hundred people around the world (3 countries outside the US), exceeding our goal by recording 1,490,307 meters!
We had people rowing at home, at 3 Row House locations, many Rock Steady Boxing Affiliates and CrossFit boxes to name a few. At least 6 people rowed a full marathon (42 thousand meters)!
Many also participated by donating or collecting donations for our Row to Slow Parkinson's fundraiser for the Michael J Fox Foundation. We hoped to raise $25,000 ... we ended up raising almost $39,000, including a $10,000 matching donation from Team Fox supporter Carl Stiewe!
We are over the moon with the response to the Row-A-Thon concept and are already planning for an even bigger event in 2022!
Thanks to everyone who supported our efforts in 2021 to raise the awareness of the importance of exercise for those living with Parkinson's while raising funds to find a cure!
(CrossFit 309 dedicated their WOD to rowing)
(Dee Dee and me at Rock Steady Boxing Peoria)