my friends really inspired me to keep rowing and getting better,” she says. In fact, she became so good that she won medals in international competition. At the Pan American Games in 2011, she earned a silver medal in a two-person boat and a bronze in a four-person boat. Although she is proud of her rowing successes, Ms. Reddick says her greatest accomplishment has nothing to do with medals or trophies. It’s been her work to mentor and support young people. “Personal achievements are great,” she says, “but it’s knowing you help other people that makes you feel good about yourself.” She helped start Philadelphia City Rowing in 2009 to teach middle and high school students about the sport. “I got involved because I felt like being part of the rowing community that had given me Catherine Reddick Giving back means even more than medals Catherine Reddick became a rower by accident. She says she didn’t know anything about the sport when her roommate asked her to walk with her to a rowing meeting during her first week as a student at the University of Penn- sylvania. Ms. Reddick is from Chicago. She had no friends who rowed, and she had attended a public high school without a rowing team. When they got to the meeting, the coach spotted Ms. Reddick. She is tall—5 feet, 10 inches—which is a good trait for a rower. He invited her on the spot to join the Penn rowing team. She thought about it briefly and signed up. “When I started rowing in college, there weren’t many people who looked like me,” says Ms. Reddick, who is African American. Many of the kids “had gone to private high schools and had lots of rowing experience. Getting to know them was a different experience for me.” Rowing is special, she says, because it creates bonds between teammates. “Once I started rowing, 24 Illustration by Ebony Brown, Whitehall Healthy Reporter