Fundraiser underway | Cape Coral Rowing Club prepares for move to Tropicana Park
With a recent victory under its belt last month, the Cape Coral Rowing Club is now turning its attention to properly outfitting its soon-to-be home.
After years of planning, fundraising and an incredible outpouring of community support, the Cape Coral Rowing Club officially has a long-term home at Tropicana Park.
The club is a nonprofit that raises its own funds to operate and grow. President Saundra Weston said members have worked for years to prepare for this move — including countless hours working concessions at local venues — and have already secured a significant portion of the investment needed for its new home.
While plans have been made, some challenges have been unforeseen. That includes costs to be incurred to meet the agreement made with the city after an initial deadlocked vote on whether the club could move there, although the city had already invested in a $500,000 dock designed for the sport.
The club has launched a fundraising campaign to help support landscaping and privacy hiding to complement Tropicana Park — a secure perimeter fencing and gates, upgraded boat storage systems, enhanced secure and protection for club equipment, and additional facility and equipment improvements as the program grows.
Weston said, yes, she did plan for the club needing an external fence at the city park.
What was tougher to foresee would be the additional requirements that Weston agreed to to secure the spot for the club.
Weston figured a 6-foot-high fence, as per the usual city code, would be sufficient to surround the club’s area at the park. As talks about the club’s presence at Tropicana Park became more contentious, additional stipulations were put into place, which in turn, raised the cost of moving in.
“If you’re me, are you going to say anything about (the proposed changes) in the license after all of this hell? No. You’re going to sign it,” Weston said. “Now, those wants perpetuated into this license, those are my cost-drivers.”
Weston said there were two major factors brought into the new license: nothing can be seen above the fence, and that nothing can be seen from outside or inside the park.
Weston said those stipulations are “massive” cost-drivers for various reasons.
First, not being able to store things vertically so as to not be seen overtop a fence is problematic for the club.
“Our equipment is massive,” Weston said. “Horizontally, it’s huge. Everybody goes vertical — four-high, five-high racks. You go vertical so that as you grow, it enables you to make the most of a small footprint of land.”
With the current license, the club has been restricted as to its ability to place and store equipment vertically.
“I have to have all new boat racks fabricated,” she said. “I can’t just pick up the racks that are at our temporary location and move them to Tropicana.”
With the club’s oars at 12-feet long, storing them vertically is what makes most sense — which is what the club is doing currently. At their length and now lack of ability to go up, Weston is also having to create custom storage for the oars.
Weston said she’s frustrated that the current vertical storage racks are now obsolete, and that thousands will now have to be spent on horizontal racks.
“I’ve already spent my fence fund by virtue of having to accommodate that one thing — that nothing can be seen above the fence,” she said.
Along with 400-plus feet of fencing required to be 8 feet tall with opaque vinyl screening, also required is a continuous hedge the entire way around. Weston had volunteered to put in 80 feet of hedging in areas that have sight lines to residences, but the city-granted license now requires her to line the entire area of fencing.
“I prepared and planned for the fence,” Weston said. “But the rest of it, those were all cost-drivers put on us by the wants of other people, and I was never in a position to negotiate that. So now, I’ve got to make it work. Never in my time as president have I asked for donations. We always work for our fundraising. This is the first time I put together a campaign. By the grace of God, we got this license signed, and now we’ve got to make it work. If we want to give these kids the future that they want, and what they and their parents have fought for, then I have to figure out how to do it.”
The club’s last move cost $35,000, with members rolling out weed mat, and Weston raking gravel herself. She said the club has been responsible in its spending over the years, but that it’s starting to catch up between moves and equipment costs.
Despite the tumultuous dealings with the city to find the club a home, Weston became emotional while talking about the support from the community.
“It has been overwhelming,” she said. “We were invisible, and all of a sudden we’re clawing and fighting for our lives over something that should never have been a fight. We’re trying to make opportunities for future generations, and we had to fight so hard. I’m super grateful for the community support. I struggle to ask for donations. Even to hear people come up to us during community events where we have a tent and people telling us, ‘We’re rooting for you guys.’ That’s huge.
“What we would like right now is a little bit of grace and patience in understanding (our financial hardship) right now out of the gate. These stipulations don’t come from people that support us, they come from people who don’t support us.”
The Cape Coral Rowing Club has a fundraising campaign set up on a website called Give Butter with a goal of raising $50,000. Weston said that number is just the cost of the fence.
Weston said if the fundraising goal is not met, they will still make the move and continue to fundraise, but it may impact the number of youth they are able to serve and how much need-based financial assistance they can give at the moment.
“Regardless, we’re going to figure out how to make it work,” Weston said. “I’m grateful we have a rectangle of land and I’m going to figure out how to make it awesome.”
Weston said she hopes to be able to move the club into the park over the next six months.
For more information or to donate, visit givebutter.com/cape-coral-rowing-club.