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Cross Currents Minority Rowing Program To End

A program that has been in Rochester for  a decade now to help increase diversity in the sport of rowing is ending.

Founder of  Cross Currents Minority Rowing, Lydia Boddie-Rice says the program is not ending because of any problems, but rather because it's been so successful.

Over the last ten years, she says more than 5,000 youths and adults have been part of this program which got started with a conversation with officials at the Genesee Waterways Center which offers various types of rowing, kayaking and other activities.

“Attracting people of color, people from the neighborhoods, Genesee Waterways Center is on a prime piece of urban property but yet there really was a lack of participation in water related sports.”

Boddie-Rice says the Cross Current program helped provide minority populations with the equipment, resources and training needed to participate in the sport and it also helped form a national diversity program for rowing called "America Rows."

“The beauty of what you see on the water and the synchronicity that most experience when they see a boat that’s  just propelling itself in a race, it really takes an incredible amount of focus and coordination and you can’t leave each other behind,” she told WXXI News.

Boddie-Rice says they still hope to have some activities into June.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.