Anita Brightman, 92, was voted to Life Membership in the Outrigger Canoe Club at the Annual Meeting on February 22, 1999. Anita joined the Club at the age of 71 and instead of enjoying her retirement years immediately volunteered for committees. She spent 17 years on the Historical Committee and three years on the Canoe Racing Committee.
Anita and her companion Bob Fischer were fixtures at canoe regattas for years where they served lunch to Outrigger paddlers (turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce), handed out oranges for snacks, provided bandaids, befriended and cheered our crews on, and filled the water and lemonade jugs. They stayed from the first race to the last, a ten-hour plus day every Sunday during the regatta season. Anita was an official member of the Canoe Racing Committee from 1986-1988.
In 1983 Anita joined the Historical Committee and served on that committee until 1999. Her first assignment was on the Library subcommittee. Next, and ongoing, she was on the Clipping subcommittee. The Club had been a subscriber to a clipping serve since the early 1970s. Supervision was rather haphazard and when Anita took over in 1983, there was one bound volume of clippings. She assumed the monumental task of overhauling the entire program with the result the Club has annual volumes dating back to 1978, beautifully bound, catalogued, indexed and secured.
She originated the “This and That” scrapbook, the purpose of which was to assemble and publish special recognition given to the Club and its membership including items of historical events. It met with instant success. In 1989 she conceived the idea of a Sunshine Committee responsible for sending out get well and sympathy cards to Club members. She also created scrapbooks of annual canoe racing and other athletic events. She developed the Historical Committee’s original microfilm program. She also served on various adhoc committees including chair of a Fashion Day program, authored articles for the Outrigger magazine and assisted whenever and wherever needed.
Canoe Racing Committee
1986 Member
1987 Member
1988 Member
Historical Committee
1983 Member
1984 Member
1985 Member
1986 Member
1987 Member
1988 Member
1989 Member
1990 Member
1991 Member
1992 Member
1993 Member
1994 Member
1995 Member
1996 Member
1997 Member
1998 Member
1999 Member