An event was held on September 10, at Douglass Beach, to acknowledge the 4th anniversary of the legal founding of Aviron Knowlton and to celebrate Gabby Smith’s final at the Olympics.

Gratitude was expressed to Gabby for her example which has really helped the club grow. The rowing club in Brome Lake is now established and it may well become the official “National Centre” for rowing in the province. This will of course mean more funding from the Town, Quebec and Rowing Canada and, naturally, the continued nurturing support of the community.

Earlier in the day, Gabby spent 90 minutes at Knowlton Academy, at the invitation of Principal, Renalee Gore, with all students in attendance. Knowlton Academy started a row-ing program this summer and they will be joined by Massey Vanier next year. Aviron Knowlton Rowing is the first club in many years to run a school program and it is the fastest growing club in Quebec.

At the event, speeches were made to the approximately 75 people in attendance, by the Mayor, Isabelle Charest, local MNA, Derek Covington, President of Aviron Quebec, and Robert Paterson, President of AKR.

An exciting part of the evening was the christening of three new boats. Sylvain Desjardins and Catherie Béchamp donated a boat, Marilou Duvernay-Tardif (our next big star) and her par-ents also donated a boat and Derek Covington named a new boat “Gabby Smith” – quite a thrill for Gabby.

Rowing is alive and well on Brome Lake and this was a sport that held COVID-19 at bay and was practised and enjoyed in spite of it.