CITY PADDLES

CITY PADDLES began in 2023, for the purpose of exposing urban youth to recreational paddling sports. It’s a rare outdoor experience that currently serves two Hartford summer camps and provides occasional weekend trips in the spring and fall featuring canoeing, kayaking, and eventually paddle boarding.

CITY PADDLES starts small by teaching and practicing basic paddling and boating skills on beautiful Keney Park Pond, with several youth moving on to larger water crossings on Batterson Park’s lake. Some will also gain enough confidence to experience floating down the beautiful lower Farmington River.

While practicing water safety and learning to be independent on the water, our program introduces area youth to the natural scenes that exist in their own urban backyard and what lives on the water surface or below it. We also start students down the road of acting as environmental stewards by acknowledging the trash interfering with aquatic life and safe ways to remove it.

CITY PADDLES follows the mantra of the “No Child Left Inside” program sponsored by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). It’s a nationwide promise that has taken on greater meaning since COVID-19 pandemic isolation: “To introduce children to the wonder of nature – for their own health and well-being, for the future of environmental conservation, and for the preservation of the beauty, character and communities of the great State of Connecticut.”