Dear PBC Membership,

Welcome to 2017 and our first update of the new year! If you are reading this, then you have survived Inauguration weekend and the subsequent river closure that luckily ends tonight. Another very notable and important event (of course) was the Women’s March on Washington, which was attended by every member of the High Performance Program and many others from Potomac Boat Club.
We would like to start off the new year’s update with an event that was broadcasted by Kirsten Spittel on January 21st. We are titling it The Red Buoy Banquet, in honor of those who thrive on competition, but also have a lavish taste for the spoils of war. While not ruining the mystery surrounding this event, I wanted to spill a tiny secret for those who are thirsty to attend. The menu laid out for this event will not only be served, but also prepared by the select few gourmet chefs we have lurking in our squad. As we speak, they are consulting and cultivating an extensive menu for this banquet’s festivities, which are guaranteed to amaze.
I would also like to briefly take a moment to answer a few questions surrounding the Rising Stars Dinner, that we normally hold at this time of year. The PBC Social Committee and PRSF agreed a few months ago, that we would hold the Rising Stars Dinner biennially (every two years) and have it at a bigger and more robust venue. I apologize for not updating our regular attendees sooner, but we hope that this will boost attendance to include more of the PBC community next year and Olympic year.
If you have made it this far through my update, I would like to raise awareness about a sin that most of us have been committing in our everyday lives. Yes, I am talking about making unneeded purchases on Amazon.com, and not using their sister site AmazonSmile. For those of you who weren’t aware, AmazonSmile has the exact same prices and gives you the same instant gratification of spending money on something you don’t need, but donates a percentage of your expense to the charity of your choice. Luckily, a couple of die-hard volunteers were able to associate the Potomac River Sports Foundation with this opportunity, so that you can select it and have money donated to our team with no added hassle other than going to the AmazonSmile site. Since we are always looking to fundraise outside of PBC, this happens to be one of the easiest and most continual sources possible.
I hope this email reaches each of you in good health and I expect everybody to be logging in their meters this Winter. Please remember that summer golds are won during the winter months. I also look forward to seeing the who’s who at The Red Buoy Banquet in March, to which registration goes live tomorrow at 12pm (EST) here: redbuoybanquet2017.eventbrite.com    

Onward and upward,

Sam Stitt