Purpose
Washington Recreational River Runners (WRRR) is non-profit club of private boaters dedicated to promoting the safe recreational use and access to rivers throughout the Northwest and British Columbia.
WRRR has always been open to any whitewater enthusiast, in any type of river crafts. Driven by the activities and awareness in todays culture, we started to look at the people attending our club events and people running rivers in the Northwest, and couldn’t help but notice that it is dominated by white males. This is not an anomaly as many outdoor sports and clubs in the Northwest lack diversity. However, our club wants to go beyond being open and aware, to becoming an active part of improving diversity in the sport of whitewater and in our club.
The WRRR Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee was created in July 2020 to help identify actions that we could take to actively improve diversity and inclusion in the whitewater river sport and our WRRR Club.
Top Priorities/Mission:
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Reevaluate our brand partnerships. Moving forward we will be conscience of partnering with brands who share our organizations values.
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Work to support and partner with other organizations that facilitate diversity and inclusion in whitewater and/or outdoor sports to underrepresented communities.
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Educate ourselves and club members on how to be allies.
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Support and collaborate with organizations doing the work to make positive impact on whitewater or outdoor diversity.
What We’ve Done
WRRR raised over $2000 through an online auction in the fall for a new Diversity in Whitewater Scholarship that will be used to help Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and other under-represented populations, experience rivers and learn how to run them safely. We have awarded our first Scholarship providing the recipient with professional kayak training and look forward to helping more.
We have pulled together a list of stories, resources, and groups working to make whitewater and outdoor sports more inclusive and diverse. You can learn more about the issues and groups making a difference
