The 1st of July brought us to our third installment of the Ladies Southeast Paddling Series. We had 40 women join us for a misty, splashy, fun-filled run of the Nantahala Gorge! We raised $365.00 for the Shannon Christy Memorial Fund, bringing the series total to $980.00. Keep it up, ladies! We can’t thank you enough for supporting the fund’s mission to ultimately bring kayaking to underserved women and girls, as a means of empowerment and confidence-building. Also, we extend a huge thanks to our sponsors, Dagger, Werner and Kokatat. Remember that your raffle tickets have you in the running for a Dagger kayak, Werner paddle, and Kokatat dry top, which will be raffled off at the end of the series! Additionally, some awesome schwag, courtesy of our sponsors, was doled out during the day raffle at the Nantahala. Our Werner gold medal/bottle opener was bestowed upon three lovely ladies in a three-way tie: Kristin Evans and Heather Curry for their unwavering enthusiasm and dedication to the series (they’ve showed up for every event!) and Jennifer Whitlock for achieving her first combat roll! Congratulations ladies!

We’re having a blast and are looking forward to the next event on FB9, which will take place July 18. The schedule for the remaining events is as follows:

July 18 – Section 9 of the French Broad – Angela Como and Emily Yuratovac leading

July 25 – Pigeon River – Emily Shanblatt, Angela Como and Katie Dean leading

August 1 – Ocoee River – Anna Levesque, Emily Shanblatt and Angela Como leading

September 18 – Lower Gauley River – Laura Farrell, Adriene Levknecht, Maria Noakes leading

You can also check out the events on Facebook. Here are some photos of the Nantahala event. I look forward to seeing you on the river!