Two great minds with one big idea is the foundation of what came to be not only the largest but the only collaboration of its kind in paddling and crew training in Canada.  Power to Paddle (P2P) is a partnership between Red River Rowing Club and Manitoba Canoe & Kayak centre and the commitment to create opportunities for our athletes to participate in all or any of our disciplines.   Our focus is simple…….get as many people as we can to get off the couch and be active.  We don’t make it about us or them, we make it about you and how we can get every person, regardless of age or size to be active but this does come with a cost. 

Although we are Winnipeg proud, our athletes face challenges and extra costs that are exclusive to Winnipeg which range from environmental to geographical to demographic. It is true that we have the most lakes in Canada and train on the beautiful Red River but it happens to flood massively every year but that is to be expected also that we host one of the coldest and longest winters in Canada. How do we overcome these environmental issues……we are very creative with our training but there is a big but…….to be a competitive athlete in this province means not just lots of training but also travel as all the big events and regattas are NOT in or close to Manitoba. When you add in that Manitoba is a smaller province in numbers it also means that our government funding is substantially less than that of the bigger provinces. We are determined and creative but this all comes with a extreme costs to our clubs, athletes and families.

The P2P is about the people. The people of our businesses that have built our province, clubs and communities. Together we are better but also stronger when we have the financial support to allow us to develop the programs that we need to ensure that each athlete has opportunities and not limitations. P2P is getting support to our clubs, programs and people that allow them to have no limits to their success. We are share our efforts for the benefits of our athletes, families and friends which is how the great minds behind P2P came about.