Auckland Grammar packs history into Maadi team tent
Auckland Grammar’s Maadi team tent connects the team with their history, building the feel of a rowing family.
It is day three of Maadi, and by now most teams have finished decking out their tents.
But Auckland Grammar’s tent is still “evolving”.
The team tents by the lake front give rowers, parents and supporters a place to gather and make themselves a home.
Some teams have set up couches, some a welcome carpet, or a mascot. Pretty much everybody has a banner.
But Auckland Grammar’s tent is like walking into a cross between a museum and some medieval king’s war tent.
Home-made banners hang point down along one wall, stitched with the school’s emblem. The other two walls are covered with framed photos commemorating past victories and regattas, stretching back to 1976. And in the centre, propping each other up like spears, are oars bearing the names of past Maadi champions.
Auckland Grammar parent Amanda Carter said it has become a tradition for the parents of the school’s U16 rowers to put together the tent at Maadi.
“Unfortunately for me I’m the only U16 mum here at the moment. So I’ve had a lot of lovely help from an U17 mum and couple of U18 mums,” she said.
The tent has taken two days to come together, and they’re not quite finished with it yet. Over the next couple of days they’ll be putting in more tables and chairs so they can put on a bit of a feast for the parents coming down to watch the finals.
It all grew out of the idea to put up a “wall of fame” that was suggested by Carter’s husband Mark.
The school provided archival photos for one wall. The photos on the back wall, from about 2006 onwards, came from parents, past and present.
Carter said you could trace a student’s rowing history around that wall.
She picked out Jim Aimer, moving from photo to photo. There he is as part of the “learning to row boys”. Here he’s winning the U16 fours. Up there he’s part of the team being awarded the Springbok Shield in 2011. And last year he was selected for the Auckland Light Blues, Auckland Rowing’s development team for the region’s promising young rowers.
It is that connection to the team’s history, and the efforts of parents and volunteers to do it up, that makes the tent so special to everyone involved.
“The thing we like about is that it all means something…It makes us feel part of a bigger, firmer, rowing family,” Carter said.
