Regatta Preparations Underway!

Every year 400 volunteers at our school welcome nearly 5000 guests to the Brentwood campus for our annual regatta, the largest high school regatta in North America. The students, faculty, facilities and support staff all work together for two weeks leading up to the regatta doing a huge array of tasks including: building the stages for the musical performances, preparing the sleeping areas for visitors, creating 500 extra plates per meal, readying the race course, and registering all the competitors. These same volunteers also donate 72 hrs of volunteer time during the three days of the regatta. Students enrolled in the school's business program  provide stalls on the school's plaza offering delicious food, t-shirts and other items. For this year's 40th regatta, visiting athletes and coaches will be hosted in our new LEED dining room, a sustainable building that will be opened a few weeks prior to the regatta. Our regatta is designed to be a green event, with recycling, composting, and reusable materials encouraged. The local Scouting and Cub group and the student environmental group (BEAT) are in charge of running the 'green regatta' and ensuring proper garbage disposal. Certificates are given to the student businesses that meet the sustainability standards set for the regatta. In the boathouse, all of our equipment will be tuned up during the two weeks prior to regatta ensuring that every shell is ready to race. The week prior to the regatta, the on-water preparation will be completed for the start dock, the safety boats, and the buoys. Students participating in the boathouse programme run the regatta from the water and are in charge of the safety boats and the start dock. These same students also spend hours of their own time training all the drivers for the umpire boats on the water showing them the proper driving techniques to follow the races with the umpires and how to navigate the school's waterfront. There are 50 boats in the Brentwood fleet, all of which will be used during the regatta. This year a new boat will be christened at the regatta in memory of Bob Dallin, our boatman who passed away last fall. Registration for the regatta opens on March 15th and closes on April 10th. Please see http://regatta.brentwood.bc.ca/ for more information about this major annual event. We look forward to seeing you here!