My Morten is floating on cloud 9. Yesterday May 21, 2009 was LCRC’s big day! Our first meeting with “the City” about his dream, Lake County Rowing Club. We had an appointment with Darren Gray, Assistant City Manager at 9:30.

Our day started off on a high note.  Being a Thursday, Morten & I always go to my KIWANIS meeting that start at 7:30. Breakfast is at Sanctuary Ridge Golf course. Somehow eating while looking out over those gorgeous golf views makes the food digest better:D

I gave a happy $ for Jeffrey’s Academic Excellence Award & tonight’s East Ridge HS football game. (Jeff is the starting Jr Varsity Wide Receiver & it’s his 1st official HS game.) Since Morten only had a $5 bill we also had enough to be happy about our 9:30 meeting & I asked for everyone’s prayers that things would go well.  Everyone joked throughout the breakfast about their rowing  skills, peach Chik-Fil-a milkshakes & we discovered Richard & Neville had actually rowed! Ray (Gamegood) Goodgame told about his island adventures which excited Morten since he had also been to Ray’s island many times. (Such a small world!) Our friend & rowing coach Karen Dorrs (Dorrs Plumbing) joined us at Kiwanis since she recently joined the Chamber of Commerce. Cuqui Whitehead had explained we are all the same people basically & she’ld be a wonderful extention to the family.  Our family really pumped Morten up so instead of being his usually quiet self he was actually visibly energized about the meeting w/Darren.

We arrived at City Hall & were greeted in the 1st floor lobby by Debbie Kiely (friend, rowing coach, 19 yr Carrier employee/mgr) who was as excited as Morten. David Teske the City’s Parks & Recreation Manager walked out of his office at almost the exact same time & I almost giggled as I saw identical grins on every ones faces. There was a definite feeling that “something good” was happening today.  As the elevator opened; Morten, David, Debbie, Karen & I stepped inside.  This symbolic 1st step toward the history of Lake County Rowing Club occured at exactly 9:28 am. We would be on time for our meeting with Darren!

David popped his head in to find out where we would be meeting Darren & I slipped in behind him to wave at Jan, the nice lady who got us the appointment in the first place. I would never pass up a chance to see her smiling face & gorgeous orchids (biggest I’ve ever seen.) Her genuine interest in our rowing club really warmed my heart & let me know we were doing something special. She explained Morten needed to keep going with his dream, it was a good thing. The day we met Jan,  Morten agreed a “Picnic Club” was a definate part of Lake County Rowing Club. As we were walking out to the car he said, “Ms. Jan will be our first charter member to the Picnic Club!”

David directed us across the lobby through impressive glass doors that lead to an even more impressive conference room.  The center of the room was dominated by a big long wooden table with lots of high backed comfortable chairs. Somehow I could feel the butterflies in Morten’s tummy just by looking at his shy smile as he squeezed my hand. We all stood wondering where we were “allowed” to sit.

At that moment the little boy in Morten was visible inside his giant frame. I could see how overwhelming it must seem to him. Traveling from a country on the other side of  the world, surrounded by people who spoke a different language than he did, asking for help from a City he was not a native to, about a sport that no one in the South seemed to know or care about.  I smiled at him as we took our seats & I could see My Morten put on his game face.

Darren arrived and sat at the head of the big table, Morten sat to his left with his new friend David at his side (everyone is a friend to Morten, he always greets people with an open heart.) I sat to Darren’s right with Debbie & Karen close at hand.  Together I thought we looked quite impressive & I was so tempted to snap a picture for future generations of rowers to admire. Giggles. Morten & Karen are not big fans of cameras so I kepted my urges under control.

After the introductions & small talk about wives, families & children Darren asked, “Now what are we here for today?” ROWING: Morten began by telling him about his dream to start a rowing club here in Clermont. He told of how he started looking for a place to row & discovered Orlando Rowing Club was the closest place established. After spending his days walking the shores of Lake Minneola this information astounded him. He continued by explaining his love of the sport of rowing, how ideal the area was for non motorized boats & belief that it could help enrich the lives of the people in our community.  Debbie added her experiences from rowing in central Florida & explained how she & Karen had driven 100 miles round trip every morning just to row at 3am in the morning. I added that if our focus was to “Shop South Lake” why would we want to force our talented athletes to drive all the way to Orange County when Lake County was historic for it’s gorgeous waterways.  I also mentioned our recent visit to the UCF Rowing arena that had a scholarship program for 100, yet none of the ladies were originally from Lake County. If our youths had the oppertunity to learn the sport how many “Tiger Woods” of rowing could we find in our community?

“Ann Dupee wrote about the State Championships being held right here at Jaycee beach, yet Clermont did not have a rowing team to enter. I think that is a very sad thing. We have some of the most beautiful waterways in Florida. Clermont’s “Water and Waterways” {deserved more coverage in her book} because of its importance not only in the past, but in the future of the area.” as quoted from Miriam W Johnson & Rosemary Y Young’s book, CLERMONT Gem of the Hills 1884-1984. Our community was built around “Cow House Lake” now Lake Minneola because of it’s clean & calm waters. We at Lake County Rowing Club would like to use what we have learned from our cities founders & give our lakes the respect it deserves. Traveling the waters by boat has been a tradition since the earliest recorded records, first by the local Indians and later as settlers began to homestead this beautiful land & as a means for transporting our most important crop, citrus. It’s truely a shame that now only motorized boats can safely/legally get in & out of the shores of Lake Minneola. All we ask for is the right to walk our boats into the water as our forefathers did, the opportunity to teach a new generation of settlers into our community this love for the water and a secure location that we can achieve this goal. In exchange we pledge to improve & maintain this facility ourselves, through the support of our membership, our community & general public.”

As our meeting came to a close Darren said slowly….”I like the idea…I really do. I’ll talk to my boss about it and he will have to discuss it with the council but I will see what I can do for you.”   There seemed to be a sense of surprise in his voice. We had not asked for any money or big promises. We just wanted to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the lake & use a building that had been boarded up for years. He said something like, “this seems like the missing piece [of the puzzle]down there. Clermont has the running, swimming & biking but nothing really focusing on the waterways. Rowing could help bring that aspect back into what the [Waterfront Park] area is all about.” God willing we will be able to walk our row boats out into the water near Waterfront Park, use the wonderful bathroom facilities and make the old abandoned boathouse near the old Bell Ceramics property as the official home for “Lake County Rowing Club” this summer as we help our community LEARN TO ROW.
On the advice of Ann Dupee, Dennis Smolarek & Esther Catino (Lake County Library) we went to the Community Foundation where Paul & Bruce helped get us in to see Brett Jones. Brett agreed to help us get our 501.c3 for FREE! His partner, a CPA will do the accounting side for about the cost of the filing fees which equal around $800 but that is something Morten & I can take from our savings (Morten hopes to be able to work soon but the Visa center says now they lost all the papers AGAIN.) We still need to raise the $1200 for insurance before we can actually work with any kids but we are working towards it like Morten says, “learn to walk before we run.” So step by step we are making this happen. It’s Morten’s dream & I will do whatever I can to make it come true. We fight constantly, but Morten has never really asked anything from me except this rowing club so I will make it happen, by hook or by crook, if I have to knock on every door in Clermont & Lake County:D Morten has already gotten two 8 person rowing boats, equipment & services donated equaling almost $100,000.00. The least I can do is knock on a few doors…

Special thanks go out to Mark & Dawn for really opened my eyes to how much we have to do to be able to use City property. We would take our responsibility seriously & treasure the gift it would be. We topped of the afternoon by eating lunch at Amanda’s place, Cheeser\’s Palace. Her mom made us a wonderful chicken rolled in cranberries & served w/rice. Delicious! Morten was almost licking the plate, giggles. US National rowing team coach, Matthew , Scott Clark (longtime friend & general contractor) & Debbie joined us for lunch, which was nice since they had never been to Cheeser’s. Amanda was thrilled at the new customers. It’s always a great thing for me to share our city’s “Best Kept Secret.” Of course we walked over to Keith’s Bacchus Vino so we could join the Lunar Wine club. He seemed really happy to have new members & even talked about ways we could get a “rowing section,” added to his shop. Debbie bought 5 bottles of wine for our weekend Rowing club supper, I bought 2 & Morten bought me a wonderful $60 wine bottle opener!  We all did join the club so now we will have wine every full moon, hopefully enjoyed in one of our row boats under the open sky while floating on Lake Minneola (Cow House Lake).

[*Giggles...I checked out Gem of the Hills & have been reading it little by little to Morten. He can read English of course, but he loves to listen to me read. I think it's easier for him to understand that way since he doesn't think completely in English yet:D] He’s admitted he already thinks of the boathouse as ours and Lake Minneola as our club’s home.

“I would love it if we could have an exhibition for our Rowing team during the 125th Celbration of Clermont,” Morten said. “It is a wonderful life…” I added.

WANT TO HELP BRING ROWING TO LAKE COUNTY?

E-MAIL US: kim@kimberanna.com or morten@bjoernmaritime.com

Visit  the Lake County Rowing Club Website http://www.lcrc.us

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