The Ergathon 2021

On 26th and 27th of November the MGC rowing club held our annual Ergathon fundraiser and first boat christening in many years.

The Ergathon

During the event, our squad of rowers managed to keep eight rowing machines running continuously between the hours of 3:30 PM Friday until 9:00 AM Saturday morning. Throughout the evening, the rowers travelled a total of 1,539km, which is a fantastic effort.

Our rowers were supported by a large team of volunteers, who enabled the event to occur. I would like to recognise the work of our parents and parents’ committee, who worked hard to plan, organise and feed the rowers and coaches dinner and breakfast. Thank you also to our many coaches, who volunteered their time to supervise the event, with many staying awake all night and into the morning. Finally, I would like to thank the Assistant Rowing Leader Jess Fischmann for ensuring the event ran incredibly smoothly in my absence.

Thank you also to the many members of the school community who donated to the fundraiser. It is incredibly exciting that in a single day we were able to raise sufficient funds to purchase an additional quad scull for our rowing program.

Congratulations also to Mia Harrison who rowed the furthest distance by a senior rower at 33km, Luca Sherman, who rowed the furthest distance by an intermediate rower (and top overall) at 37km and Martina Phan who managed a stellar 29km in the junior category.

The Boat christening

From 10:00 AM, we were very lucky to christen many (but not all) of the new boats that we have purchased over the past two seasons. The boat christening consisted of a short speech in honour of the recipient, followed by the ceremonial smashing of champagne over the hull.

Below is a brief summary of the contribution of each of the individuals or families that were recognised during the event.

• 'Richard Ryan' founded the program and built it from humble beginnings.
• 'Big John D'Ambrosio' oversaw the construction of the Gillard Centre and most of the school buildings at MGC
• 'Karen Money' was the most recent Principal of the school and a huge supporter of the rowing program
• 'Nancy Sandilands' is our very long serving MGC Business Manager, and is instrumental in ensuring our program is funded and supported behind the scenes
• The 'Funston Family' had numerous daughters row and coach in our club, as well as being long serving school council members.
• The 'Betts Family' had numerous daughters row and coach in our club, as well being our official photographers, volunteers, parents' committee members and supporters for a very, very long time

The 'Cuddy Family' had two daughters row and coach in our club, as well as serving on parents committee for many years and running the school uniform shop as a volunteer

'Tonya Douglas-Scarfe' was the teacher in charge of MGC rowing during a golden age for the club and continues to support the program as a Year level leader at MGC

'Chloe Betts' is a current coach and former MGC rower, member of the first public school crew to win the HOSG regatta, and former Victorian and Australian representative. She also rowed highly successfully in the US College system as for a number of seasons during her university studies.

'Andrew Beck' was unable to attend and will have his boat christened in a future, however, Andrew played a very important role in the club as teacher in charge for a number of years and we look forward to recognising his work in the near future.

Thank you also to Mr Arney and Ms O’Connell for attending both the conclusion of the Ergathon and the boat christening.

Glenn FischmannDirector of Rowing