Three new members have been inducted into the Royal St. John’s Regatta Committee’s Hall of Fame.
Long-time board member Bernard Collins, course judge and former MHA Siobhan Coady, and coach Paul Power were all formally inducted in a ceremony at St. John’s City Hall yesterday afternoon.
Coady has been judging at the end of the pond for some 36 years, and admits, the job can be difficult at times.
MHA Keith White and St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen with inductee Siobhan Coady (VOCM News)
“And as Wayne Young would say, the bottom of the pond is hours of boredom and minutes of terror,” she told a crowded room at City Hall.
“We’ve seen it all, from medical emergencies to mistakes, to collisions, and some of them pretty serious. We’ve fished people out of the lake who thought it was a good idea after many, many hours in the beer tent to swim across in the middle of a race. But I’ve been honoured to spend a lot of time, in a lot of laughter, with the best people at the bottom of the pond.”
MHA White and Mayor Breen with inductee Paul Power (VOCM News)
Longtime coach Paul Power says being involved in the regatta means countless hours away from family preparing for the next race.
“And then you thank your parents because I think for years supper was in the microwave. For as long as I can remember I don’t think I was ever home. But dedication and commitment are everything.”
“My wife, who I met through rowing really, I’ll say it, put up with me because it’s such a commitment to put in. And you know people say, ‘Oh it’s not that much of a commitment. It’s all or nothing, you’re into it all the time’.”
