This month’s volunteer spotlight swings around and lands on a rocket scientist! Well, so being a molecular biologist working for Ross Labs ain’t exactly rocket science but you still need a bunch of brain cells to do that. We’ve all wondered about the state of one’s brain cells that allows one to run for election to the COP board so it must be something else about Jennifer Thurmond that landed her on the board. Truth be told, I know she cares a lot for our activities and our organization and wants to see the financial and operational support funneled back into our various recreational pursuits.

Her caring extends to doing what she can to see that children and animals (even the animal known as Keith Finn) are taken care of as well. Sirius, her dog (who you’ve already seen in the newsletter) was an abused animal that is now pampered beyond belief. Jennifer also is involved with the Girl Scouts of America in a leadership role. She makes it a point that her girls get a chance to try canoeing, rafting, caving and other activities. She has recruited COP helpers and equipment to assist with her GSA adventures.

Jennifer has been a COP member for seven years and active for the last three. Her baptism came during one of COP boatings "Weekend of Rubber" inflatables trips. Although scared and shaky, she was supported by our experienced volunteers and has now come back as a volunteer canoe instructor and pioneered our first offering of FWWWE, the Family White Water Weekend Extravaganza. Nearly 70 folks took part in this COP members-only rafting trip on the Upper New River in West Virginia last August. They had so much fun that Jennifer will be offering it again this year. She has also ridden GOBA and paddled our southern flatwater trip last spring.

Now you know Jennifer Thurmond!

Although the only water you may be thinking of getting into is a hot tub, think about the promises you made yourself about learning to canoe or kayak and sign up for a class or take a trip with COP this year. 2001 promises to be another great year for COP boating. We’ll have new classes and fresh instructors and with any luck, a sea-kayak program that we’ll start up with new boats from Current Design.

January and February means Sunday pool sessions 11-1 PM at the Greenhouse Aquatic Center. An Eskimo roll class will be held there in late January. Early February we’ll hold our beginning kayak class - Kayak I - in their pool as well.

March and April showers won’t affect our fun. We’ll have a whitewater film festival and gear swap, Canoe I, Kayak I & II classes and a Pennsylvania icebreaker trip.

So whether you paddle with one blade or two - or would like to learn the difference, come check out COP boating this year.

I got a call in late November from a volunteer with the Ohio Wildlife Center looking for someone to help with waterfowl rescue. I talked with Dave Motz and found him full of zeal and energy and focused on the mission of rescuing injured wildlife. He had a mallard drake that had been shot and was foundering in a pond near Dublin. Turns out a kayaker up there helped net the bird and it’s now recovering nicely at OWC.

Several days later I got another call. A canada goose was stuck in a pond in Hilliard. I did a seal launch from the bank and kept the goose off the water while Dave chased it long enough for it to become tired and then he caught the bird in a blanket. It was healthy but had a probable broken clavicle or humerus and couldn’t fly. It should do just fine.

This story is about birds and blankets and volunteers and how you can help. The Ohio Wildlife Center is the only organization in central Ohio that rehabilitates all species of injured and orphaned native wildlife. They are a source for wildlife information, research and protection. Whether you’d like to answer phones, raise animal orphans or rescue waterfowl from your boat, OWC would be glad for your help. Contact them at 761-0134 to volunteer. See them on the web at www.ohiowildlifecenter.org.

You never knew chainsaws and canoeing went together, did you? Sometime in September, in the middle of a 2000 cfs discharge, the Mad River ate enough into the bank that it toppled a big honey locust tree and created a grandaddy of a strainer. Of course it was right at a good place for beginning canoeists to practice ferries and eddy turns. Which means when they screwed up it was ready to eat them. Which means they were even more nervous because they knew it was waiting for them.

You never know when there’s a boater around. Sure, you might see a vehicle with a boat rack and the appropriate bumper stickers but if you scan the river, you probably won’t see us. We come and go in silence, in rain and mist, flood and drought, paddling the silent craft of the silent sport.

All this poetics aside, there’s some rippin’ and snarlin’ when we take out a strainer! One photo shows the grandaddy, the other shows Jon Blake (a granddaddy himself) wielding the chainsaw that took down the monster. Yours truly kept himself out of the newsletter ‘cause those neoprene waders didn’t help my abdominal profile any!

We are pleased to announce that we will be having our winter pool sessions at the Greenhouse Aquatic Center. The Greenhouse Aquatic Center is located at 5520 Cherrywood Rd. This is south of 161, north of Morse Rd. and west of Karl. From Karl Rd., turn west on Sandalwood Place and turn left on Yellowwood Dr. Shortly after turning onto Yellowwood, you’ll notice a large white dome (the pool covering) and a large parking lot south of the dome. Park in the lot and enter from the west side of the dome. There are locker rooms on the west end (Cherrywood Rd. side) of the building attached to the pool. Make sure you leave early for your first visit to allow for wandering!

Please make sure your boats are clean enough to eat out of. We don’t want to have to rake the pool bottom! Dirty boaters will be asked to leave and/or keelhauled. COP will have four kayaks available for people to use on a first-come, first -serve basis. Sharing the COP boats will be necessary.

Cost of the sessions is $5 for COP members and $7 for non-members. The sessions will be held each Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning January 7, 2001 and finishing with the last Sunday in February. See the map in last month’s newsletter for directions.

The dates are: January 7, 14, 21, 28 and February 4, 11, 18 and 25. Contact John Lane with questions at lane.30 (AT) osu.edu or 486-4548.

The National Paddling Film Festival will be held in Lexington, Kentucky on February 23 & 24. COP hasn’t formally organized a trip to go there in the last 3 or 4 years but some of our members usually go. We would like someone who is planning on going to either organize a group trip (which pretty much means just making some motel reservations) or at least serve as a contact for the event. You can check out the NPFF site at: http://www.surfbwa.org/npff/index.html.