The ROW community recently lost one of our teammates, Christa Cannon. I only knew Christa for two years, with both of us going through our novice season together in 2015, but she made a lasting impression on myself and the ROW team in that short time.

Christa was a spitfire, with strong opinions and bright red hair. Christa and I shared a strong love and appreciation of ROW and a passionate hatred for breast cancer.

Christa started with ROW around the same time I did and in those early ROW days, we shared a drive to be out on the water, an awareness of how much rowing was improving our range of motion and general health, and appreciation of the comraderie that ROW offered.

We were both at the first Novice open water ROW practice of 2015–the year we beat the Masters rowers out on the water.

And spent that first summer out on the water with ROW as much as possible.

Here we are heading out onto the Chicago River in June 2015. Christa is in the 6 seat.

She was passionate about her walking, getting at least 2 miles in a day regardless of whether or not she rowed. I remember that first summer, Christa always parking her car at the back of the ROW parking lot when she attended practice so she would get in extra steps.

We both started 2016 on a mission to get in shape and began training for CIRC–the annual Chicago Indoor Rowing Competition, recognizing that exercise is so important–and empowering.

And training led to the actual event in February–which Christa rocked!!!

Christa loved having a good time and had a blast at the 2016 St. Patrick’s Day Row:

And while neither of us made it out on the water as much as we would have liked during the outdoor season of 2016, she kept at it and was a part of ROW as frequently as possible. And she was so excited to be able to see ROW move into the new Bridgeport Boathouse in November 2016.

In her honor, a campaign to raise monies for the Christa Cannon Memorial Boat Fund has been launched by ROW so that a boat can be purchased and named after Christa, “so that her memory will forever be part of the team.”

Christa’s passing in June was a great loss to her husband, Douglass, and the ROW Family.

Christa, I will miss you.

xoxo