Herkimer County Habitat for Humanity is getting some help from an unusual source — a New Hampshire couple rowing an Adirondack guideboat from Buffalo to Albany on the Erie Canal.
Gunnar and Heather Baldwin of Thornton, N.H., arrived at the Ilion Marina Wednesday evening at about 6:15 after rowing in from Rome.
“We rowed 27.25 miles yesterday,” Heather Baldwin said Thursday. “That’s the most we’ve rowed so far.”
They spent Wednesday night in Ilion with Brad and Harriet Haines of the Herkimer County Habitat for Humanity and launched their boat again Thursday morning to head for St. Johnsville, another 20 miles east.
“It was wonderful to have a home-cooked meal,” Heather Baldwin said of the hospitality. “After three weeks of eating in restaurants and fast-food places, to have a home-cooked meal with squash from their garden was just heavenly.”
The Baldwins’ boat is bound to get a bit of attention on the canal. It’s an Adirondack guideboat set up for two crew-style rowers with a tent-like shelter over the couple.
“That keeps us from getting sunstroke,” said Gunnar Baldwin.
On the bow of the boat is the message, “Rowing for Habitat.”
Gunnar I. Baldwin is the water efficiency specialist for TOTO USA INC. and has spent much of his career encouraging water efficiency in plumbing. He rowed in school and college and coached crew while teaching mathematics for 16 years.
His wife, Heather, has retired from teaching biology at Plymouth State University. She is a marine biologist whose main interest is the study of seaweeds (marine phycology). She is now a full time homemaker and caregiver for her elderly mother.
Gunnar’s employer, TOTO USA Inc., is sponsoring the trip and has agreed to donate toilets and bathroom sinks to the local Habitat for Humanity affiliates that the couple visit on their rowing trip. The toilets and sinks are to be used for this year’s Habitat building projects. There are 15 affiliates along the canal, Heather Baldwin said.
The couple have also been accepting pledges by the mile for Habitat and other donations.
“Some people just throw money into the boat,” said Heather. “We’ll divide it between the affiliates.”
They carry a Global Positioning System aboard the boat and use their cell phones to call ahead to the locks to ask to be locked through.
The Baldwins could not make this trip without help.
“It’s amazing how many people step up to the plate and help us,” said Heather.
That help includes driving Gunnar Baldwin to the site where they left their SUV and boat trailer in the morning so he can bring it to the new location and pull the boat out of the water for the night.
Heather said she waits with the boat during these times. “I get a lot of knitting done,” she said.
This time they got a bit of extra help. Charles Carney of Urell Inc., which represents TOTO, drove the Baldwins’ vehicle on to the St. Johnsville, and Haines drove there to bring Carney back to his own vehicle.
Habitat for Humanity is an international organization that works to provide simple, decent housing for families who could not ordinarily afford their own home, but are willing to work with Habitat volunteers to build their own homes. The homes are then sold to the partner families for the cost of materials. Habitat holds the no-interest mortgage on the homes.
For more information on the Baldwins’ trip or to donate, visit their Web site at http://rowing.thorntongore.com.
Ilion, N.Y. —
