Save the date: June 7, 2024
With the nature of our business and our outdoors-loving staff, it is no wonder that a group of motivated Burke-ers came up with the idea to commute to work via canoe.
In the spring of 2012, six individuals awoke in the wee hours of the morning, carpooled to a launch site, and hopped into kayaks and canoes on Fall Creek which would lead them to the White River and on to downtown Indianapolis.
This now annual event, while initially conceived as a team-building experience, has become near and dear to us as it promotes awareness of our waterways and offers a paddler’s view of their current condition. As the event has grown, so has our list of local partners who share our vision.
Over the past 12 years, our numbers have grown to more than 50 canoers and kayakers.
Each year on the first Friday in June, weather and water-level permitting, we paddle our way to work while focusing on not falling into the water.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Either way, we all have a good time, get some exercise, and see the importance of improving and preserving these beautiful natural features that provide many benefits to our cities and towns.
It may not be a practical way to commute every day, but it reminds us that each and every one of us can make a difference.
“While it’s certainly not the fastest or easiest commute to work, it’s an incredible opportunity to reconnect, up close, with the river, wildlife habitat and built infrastructure.”
“It’s a really great way to get out on the water and see the river from a different perspective and see how the projects that we’re doing affect the waterways that we live around.”
