Home town: Wayne, PA
Current town: Philadelphia, PA
Major: history and art history
Year by year boatings: '05 Men's Novice 8+; '06 Men's Lwt 8+; '07 Men's Hwt 8+
If you are interested in learning more about PCR, the non-profit that Elle speaks about, you can go on their website. You can also email any questions to Elle here.
To read the full interview, click below.
FoHCMR: Where do you work right now? What are your responsibilities? How did you find the job?
Elle: My ‘day job’ is at Glenmede Trust Company as a Marketing Analyst and Junior Editor. I help with all sales opportunities, producing marketing materials and analysis, updating our consultant databases with quarterly performance and assisting with editing all Glenmede content. I am also very involved with Philadelphia City Rowing (PCR).
FoHCMR: Why did you decide to move to Philadelphia after HC?
Elle: I grew up in the suburbs so Philadelphia wasn’t a big stretch for me. Further, Sull and Floyd had encouraged me to think about coxing after college and apply to Vesper since they had the dominant team in women’s rowing. Coach Diggins actually wrote a fantastic letter of recommendation for me after I coxed one practice for the women down in Florida. I was accepted and started up with Vesper after IRAs.
FoHCMR: What was your experience like at the elite level rowing in Philadelphia? What clubs were you apart of? What were some of the highlights of your time as an active coxswain? What was the best boat you ever raced in?
Elle: In college, I spent my pre-junior and –senior summers at PennAC. I coxed the lightweights my first year and heavyweights my second year. After college I spent 2 years at Vesper, and just recently coxed the Undine Lwt Women this fall to silver medals at both the HOCR and HOSR.
PennAC was an awesome summer program, a lot of fun. They truly embodied that work hard, play hard mentality. PennAC definitely helped me develop thick skin and help me to define my coxing style.
The best boat I ever raced in had to be my ’07 Vesper women. It was pretty much like coxing men, they were animals. We just tore everyone apart and swept all the Canadian Henley events. Senior A 8, Senior B 8, Champ 8, Champ 4…we just killed everyone. Transformers came out that summer so I made our pushes for one of the Decepticon motto's “to punish and enslave.” It was fun and great to have women who had that same aggressive mentality as me.
For Holy Cross boats, I would say the heavyweight 8, but after Al spit in my face that one practice, they had no chance of being my favorite! At HC it’s really hard to choose. I feel that lwts and hwts are so different and my ’06 lwts were so special to me in their unique ways, and the ’07 hwts were a challenge for a variety of reasons so I really liked those 2 boats for very different reasons.
FoHCMR: Tell us briefly about the mission of PCR.
Elle: PCR is non-profit dedicated to empowering youth through the sport of rowing. We’re committed to providing our athletes and coaches with every resource that they need to compete locally, regionally and nationally. We believe that by providing mentoring, academic support and a highly structured athletic program that we can close the achievement gap, stem the Philly drop-out epidemic, put more young people on the path to higher education, and inspire them to reach their full potential.
Our athletes row out of historic Boathouse Row, from a boatyard dedicated solely to serving the community. We strive to provide an atmosphere that encourages excellence, teamwork, accountability and sportsmanship. All aspects of programming offered by PCR—coaching, equipment usage, race entries, uniforms and academic support—are provided entirely free of cost to participants.
FoHCMR: How did you get involved in PCR? What are your responsibilities?
Elle: Libby Peters and Tony Schneider who founded the program both are active in Vesper so I knew them both very well. Libby was aware that I went to a service oriented school and was looking for ways to get involved in community service in Philly. At the time, I was just ‘retiring’ from coxing elite women and Libby told me about the idea of PCR.
Since some of our kids have never even been on the water, or knew how to swim, I thought it would be really beneficial for all the kids to have adult mentors from the rowing community. So I became the Director of the Mentoring Program. I recruit young adult mentors from the BHR community and match them with our amazing kids. We’ve got a good HC presence with mentors from Adam Furlong, Erick Winstead and Dan McGlinn.
Since it is a non-profit and I work for free, I’m not truly “stuck” to my one role. I also help with fundraising, programming, coaching, and the Saturday Speaker Sessions each autumn. Following Saturday morning practices, the kids will go to a boathouse and listen to a variety of people, from nutritionists, guidance counselors, National Team athletes, Olympians and prominent Philadelphia businessmen and cultural icons in the Philadelphia community. Tom Sullivan Jr. actually just spoke to our kids last weekend as part of a Leadership, Success and Rowing panel.
It is an awesome program and working with these kids is wonderful. Being able to watch them develop those skills of discipline, determination and teamwork is so cool, especially with the boys. Some of these boys can come in as real punks but the rowing really changes their attitudes, it's great to see such vibrant change.
FoHCMR: Tell us a bit about HOSR and the story behind your new t-shirts?
Elle: All PCR kids raced in a unique t-shirt for this race. The t-shirts were actually donated by Sull who really jumped on board when I told him that PCR was racing for a cause—one of their own teammates who is very sick.
Aimee Noel is a junior at Parkway CC and even though she’s only 17, she’s battled childhood leukemia twice, and won. She is small, she’s a coxswain, and I think that feisty mentality is what helped her beat the cancer when she was younger, and made her a good coxswain.
Aimee went in to the hospital on September 29th when Aimee's mom knew Aimee wasn't acting right. When she went in to get an MRI, they immediately started prepping an OR for surgery. This is because they could see right away on the scan that there was an invasive tumor covering most of her brain. They had to remove her left lobe to help operate more and they took out 40% of the tumor Thursday. Due to swelling, bleeding and seizures, they had to go back in Friday. Aimee has been diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. She actually went back in to ICU after fluid buildup in her brain that they had to drain. She’s on steroids, chemo and radiation but she isn’t complaining, she’s fighting. It is so inspiring and amazing to watch.
Back to the t-shirts. I wanted Aimee’s teammates to be able to somehow show that they want to fight this disease with Aimee. Aimee loves crew. Crew is making her forget about the pain. What it came down to was the simple face that no matter how bad ass or in shape or tough we may think we are, this little 100 lb girl is tougher than any of us with how she is fighting this silent killer inside her. I wanted her teammates to honor her by pushing their bodies to the limits for her in solidarity, and let Aimee know that they were doing that. Sull put up the money and we designed shirts that said “strokes with Aimee” on the left sleeve. The kids literally were wearing their hearts on their sleeves last weekend. They fought with her stroke for stroke.
FoHCMR: What skills, beliefs, and practices have you applied from HC (whether from in the classroom or on the water) to your life down in Philadelphia?
Elle: You know, I know Sull drilled this home a lot, but the whole idea of values and helping others. I think what separates HC’s education is that it is extremely values-based and I’m so glad that I’ve been able to exercise that. It has influenced my decisions with how I handle myself and what I want to achieve professionally. Glenmede, for instance is extremely values-driven, having been founded to manage the Pew Charitable Trusts and now families, endowments and foundations who have similar objectives. The fact that I’m able to be so involved with PCR, and that Glenmede supports my involvement, is unique. If I didn't attend HC, I don't think having a value-driven work environment would be so incredibly important to me.
FoHCMR: Bonus question #1: How much do you miss Sull?
Not that much because I still bother him with stuff a lot! In all seriousness though, I do miss Sull. He was, and is, an ideal role model as a sportsman, career-man, family-man and most importantly, as himself. The PCR kids constantly hear stories about him, and two of the kids were lucky enough to have met Sull at IRAs last June (and The Al Monte).
Floyd on the other hand…he has gone MIA and I think we should get a team to journey to NC blue-grass bars to find him and Sophie.
FoHCMR: Bonus question #2: Who is the best mentor at PCR?
Elle: I know I am technically supposed to answer with “Adam Furlong.” However, I’d say hands down the best mentor is 8 time US National Team member, 3 time World Champion gold medalist, Olympian, and oldest winner of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, Mike Wherley. I’m insanely jealous of his mentees and am trying to have him mentor me. Adam...you’re a “close” second.
No comments:
Post a Comment