Passion with courage and perseverance can result in extraordinary human accomplishment.

Competitive success as a member of a sports team is particularly memorable. It requires shared effort, not just individual achievement. March Madness is the term for this intensity in the just completed NCAA college basketball national tournament.

But athletic striving extends far beyond basketball.

The following story is about my daughter Alix who returned to compete at the highest level in women’s rowing while also raising a family and building a professional career in credit unions.

The March Event

Alix’s ultimate competitive accomplishment came March 14-15 in Amsterdam in an international rowing regatta competition, the Heineken Roeivierkamp. The event was conceived in December 1972 by two Dutch rowing coaches to break the monotony of winter training and bring excitement to the early-season rowing.

The regatta’s competition was inspired by the multi-distance format of speed skating and the spectator appeal of the Henley Royal Regatta in England. It is now one of Europe’s most distinctive and enduring rowing competitions.

Held annually in the heart of the city, the course runs through the historic waterways with long head-style stretches combined with shorter sprint segments. The four distances—5000m, 2500m, 750m, and 250m—create a unique, all-around competition for speed and endurance for crews of varying strengths.

In March 2026, the 54th edition drew more than 165 teams with over 400 crews (more than 3,800 rowers) representing 11 European countries plus the US and Canada. Entries spanned elite, student, junior, and masters categories. A minimum average age of 27 determines eligibility of a boat’s crew in the masters division.

Lining up in Amsterdam

The U.S. Entry – PBC Women’s Masters Program

Founded in 1869, the Potomac Boat Club (PBC) has long been a cornerstone of rowing in Washington, DC. Its Women’s Sweep program brings together former collegiate athletes and returning rowers who share a commitment to high-level competition and early-morning workouts on the Potomac.

The team’s year-round training mirrors the rhythm of the sport: fall head races such as the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston; winter training on the erg; spring regattas that build speed and cohesion; and a summer peak at events like the Rowfest (formerly Masters Nationals).

For 2026, PBC’s schedule included two women’s eights (intermediate and masters) and three men’s master sweeps traveling to Amsterdam.

PBC’s Women’s 2026 Crew for Amsterdam

The members of PBC’s Masters 8+ included former college club rowers at Division I institutions and a former US national team member.  One of the eight was a Dutch collegiate gold medal rower who inspired the trip.

Master rowers’ minimum age is 27 to enter. PBC masters average was in the low 30’s. Just one rower, Alix, was married and had a family.  At 54 years old, Alix’s age was exactly the same number as the of times the Amsterdam regatta has been held.

The PBC Masters Varsity in Amsterdam-Alix is third from front

“Photo Credit Robert Tiemeijer”

Alix’s First Rowing Years

Alix has 40 years of varied rowing commitments. She first began crew with four years in high school. At the University of Michigan she rowed in the bow monster’s seat in four years of varsity racing.

After earning her degree in Japanese language and literature, she spent a year working at Tokyo Electric Power’s DC office. She went back to Michigan to coach for a year just as the women’s team became part of the University’s athletic department versus a club sponsored team.

She returned to school and received a degree from Johns Hopkins School of Strategic and International studies (SAIS) in Washington DC.  Next, she embarked on a three-month round-the-world solo backpacking venture across Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.  Returning in the fall she took a “temporary job” with Callahan & Associates.

During her graduate school years and early career, she sought coaching opportunities that included positions as an assistant coach at BCC High School in Bethesda, the head coach of the Sidwell Friends high school women’s team, and a stint with a community rowing club.

Life Happens- Rowing takes a Back Seat

Alix married Scott Patterson September 15, four days after 9/11.  During the next few years, she had two boys while working full time at Callahans. Competitive rowing interests were on hold. The year after her second son was born, she went back to school to earn an MBA from the SAID Business School at Oxford University, taking her family with her.

The Transition to a Rowing Parent

As her sons went through school she introduced them to the sport. The oldest, Emmett, became a high school varsity rower as a sophomore. That year his DC high school’s Wilson (now Jackson Reed) Crew team won the Scholastic Rowing Association of America (SRAA) – the premier national crew championship for high schools.  Although seeded sixth in the final, rowing in the outermost lane, they came from behind to win in the final 200 meters. (link) 

Supporting the high school team was a multi-parent responsibility as the school’s athletic administration had no budget to cover the expenses of coaches and boats.  Alix served for years on Wilson’s parent volunteer board.

Emmett continued to compete at Cornell University, gaining a seat in the first varsity lightweight eight all four years. Parent encouragement and support was still vital and included many weekends traveling to regattas.

Back in the Boat

While involved as a parent during the last decade, Alix had not rowed competitively for almost 30 years. Then, as both boys went to college, she tried out and became a member of the PBC masters rowing program. In February the coach chose her to be in PBC’s senior masters boat for the Amsterdam regatta.

Alix rowed in the 6th seat, as part of the engine room, traditionally the team’s strongest rowers.  Four races in a weekend were chaotic yet colorful and mixed with fun–plenty of free Heineken!

Ready for racing PBC in red

Following races on bike paths

The result: After the two days of international competition, PBC’s women’s varsity placed 4^th out of nine boats in their division and 9^th out of all 44 women’s boats entered.  A record setting outcome by any standard.

On the race course:  Alix is in front of rower in white hat

“Photo Credit Robert Tiemeijer”

PBC’s Women Team in Amsterdam

Post Race

Life Comes Full Circle

Alix’s next competition is the 10-mile Credit Union Cherry Blossom run in DC on Sunday, April 12 at 7:30am.  Emmett, while now working full-time, coaches his former DC high school’s third varsity boy’s rowing team in their early morning workouts.

I share Alix’s rowing Odyssey as a proud parent (Alix’s mom died when she was 13) who has seen the ups and downs of this rowing quest. Including the quixotic drive to compete again at midlife, starting the cycle of 4:00 am wakeups for workouts.

Morning Sunrise on the Potomac

But seeing her sheer joy as she recounted the Amsterdam weekend made it all seem worthwhile.

Alix with her engine room teammates

“Photo Credit Robert Tiemeijer”

Passions give our lives purpose and often endless challenge. We celebrate and learn from the examples of what personal motivation can achieve.  These examples restore our hope in the power of people to make a difference, both in their own or in others’ lives.

 

 

 

 

Now that the ides of March have passed,  it is time to pay attention to events in April, past and present.

On this day in 1917, the United States officially entered World War I. President Woodrow Wilson tried to keep the U.S. out of the war, even after a German U-boat sunk the passenger ship Lusitania, until British intelligence intercepted a secret German communication to Mexico. Apparently, Germany had promised Mexico their former territory in the US  if Mexico would support the German cause.  (Source:; Garrison Keilor’s Writer’s Almanac)

See the details in the Zimmermann telegram Wikipedia writeup.

Public protests can be a healthy exercise for a democratic society.  Demonstrations have multiple benefits for participants and onlookers,

They create new connections among individuals with similar views.

They raise public awareness on deeply held issues.

They encourage further organization when people know they are not alone.

They push concerns to the front of public debate.

They can be prophetic,  proclaiming future hope from current circumstances..

They bring new energy to ordinary public discourse.

They embolden new people for civic leadership.

Or, as one participant said simply, “I felt  I had to.”

These motivations are especially compelling  when the events are massive and peaceful, as this weekend. Here is a sample of messages that caused people to stand on streets and share  their views with neighbors–from the general to the specific.

Patriotic Duty

A two generational effort: :  Q. on Sign: Why are egg prices so high?  A. All the chickens are in Congress.

War no more

Circling Chevy Chase Circle in DC

We the people

It rhymes

A scientific point of view

A family photo

Never too old. A cane, a flag, a beret and a sign,  No to kings.  Defend democracy.

Our children’s future rests on our shoulders.

Time for us to go Mom

A blue sky day In Spanish:  Trump should get out.

The strength of America

A game plan

The final word

 

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The move away from the virtual world of the Meta universe was announced several months ago in business news updates such as  this  WSJ December 4, 2025 article excerpt:

The decision marks a sharp departure from the vision Zuckerberg laid out in 2021, when he changed the name of his company to Meta Platforms, from Facebook, to reflect his belief in growth opportunities in the online digital realm known as the metaverse. Meta has seen operating losses of more than $77 billion since 2020 in its Reality Labs division, which includes its metaverse work.

This investment was to be the future growth engine for the company.   There was much consumer buzz around the Oculus and  Quest extensions of  virtual reality glasses.   Public discussion of virtual worlds including actual  sales of real estate in these virtual landscapes were widely portrayed as the next big investment opportunity. People could now anticipate creating virtual avatars of themselves and even virtual friendship companions.

The metaverse was launched four and one half years ago.  Now Meta’s  Horizon Worlds VR platform will be closed on June 15.  The app will no longer be available.  No more virtual futures to escape to from this real world.

An $80 Billion Loss

One article estimates that the Meta division responsible for VR and metaverse development has accumulated nearly $80 billion in losses since 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone it posted an operating loss of more than $6 billion.

The next frontier for Meta is now AI. What does Meta’s strategic misadventure mean for credit unions?   What lessons might be inferred as the entire technosphere rushes to spend hundreds of  billions in the data centers which will support multiple AI applications?  Are there potential warnings about other virtual creations especially in the area of stable coins, tokens and bitcoin financial products?

If an $80 billion investment can fail in an established company with hundreds of millions of online media users, what does that suggest for credit unions investing millions in new fintech and virtual products touted as the next frontier of finance?

Some Lessons

While there were product and creative shortcomings with Meta’s initiative, I believe there are larger lessons for credit unions.

• Scale, open ended funding and an operating track record by a successful organization does not guarantee innovative outcomes.
• A consumer or business market, even one already served, does not automatically embrace ideas or extemd its relationships.
• Product value for users matters still. Virtual reality was seen as a logical extension of simulation exercises (think pilot training) and consumers’ embrace of video games for entertainment.  An assumption that did not prove out.
• It became the company’s primary strategic focus and public identity including a corporate rebranding to Meta. Zuckerberg made it a personal priority as the historical core business of Facebook revenue funded the experiment.   No matter how dominant or innovative a firm tries to be in one market, diverse business options protect from a strategic miscalculation.  Should a CEO’s ambitions be the primary factor in a strategic change of diection?

I am not a gamer and have not tried VR.   Readers who have this experience may have their own to add.

However there are examples where credit unions bet the farm or lost significant corporate momentum from an initiative that looked plausible, but failed.  One needs only look at individual 2025 yearend performance outcomes for immediate examples.

There is always great interest in the next big innovation affecting the financial services industry or the members of a credit union.   Today the two big things are the use and impact of AI and the expansion of virtual finance products such as stable coins and alternative investments.

The final takeaway from Meta’s shutdown is that perhaps there is more life in traditional business models even as one experiments with the next big idea.  Even AI.

 

 

 

Working on several projects not yet ready for prime time, so will share several thoughts.

From a GAC presentation on credit union’s super power-but is it just credit unions?

• NY Fed bank President at the GAC 2026:  Regarding the affordability crisis, Akin asked Williams to explain what role local financial institutions play in supporting resilience, to which he answered that, as local institutions, credit unions are better positioned than anyone to support families through economic hardships due to their community roots.

“One of credit unions’ superpowers is that you’re connected to your communities,” said Williams. “It’s the fact that you’re part of the community. You understand the local conditions, the economic challenges, and the opportunities.”

• The personal advantage of local even in war: When Ukraine was invaded and what gave most comfort:  I met up with my colleague at a metro station deep underground and walked to his apartment. Never had I known how comforting the presence of familiar people can be when everything is so uncertain.

 

• Mergers should all be required to present  independent appraisal of the combing credit union’s market value before members vote on turning over control to a third party.

 

• We have had many internal conversations  about whether we would change our mission if we were taxed.  And for the moment, the threat of taxation would not change our “reason for being.”  But I am also realistic about the fact that conventional credit unions don’t care about “mission” but rather about “growth.”

 

• Garrison Keillor’s humor:  How many philosophers does it take to change a light bulb? “Define light bulb.” And the one about the student who got an A in philosophy by writing a paper proving that his professor didn’t exist.

Walking along 5th Avenue in NYC several weeks ago, I stopped at a store that had a roped line to enter.   Joan and I thought it must be a restaurant or a nightclub.

We decided to find out what twas going on. It turned out to be a recently opened Lego store.  Here is some of what we saw.

A New York City Taxi

The Statue of Liberty

A Lego tree in the main showroom.

A life size jolly green giant:.

Back to the real world. The Zamboni cleaning the ice at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.:

 

Yesterday’s thought was:   What is more important — what you stand for, or who you stand with?  Here is one person’s response.

The Visit to a Detention Center

Walking into a detention center is a surreal experience. You hand in your driver’s license, sign paperwork, lock your belongings in a locker and pass through a metal detector with your shoes off.

No cell phone, no identification, no wallet.

My heart beat fast as we were escorted through the locked metal doors and waited to be let onto the unit where we would meet with the detainees one at a time in a small airless room.

The names, faces and stories of the people we met over the course of several days- 10 people in all- are deeply etched into my heart. This was a rare opportunity to accompany an immigration lawyer and his team as we visited two centers, one in Massachusetts and RI.  We saw first-hand what conditions are like and listened to the stories of those suffering in detention…

The Center

As you can imagine, a detention center is a haunting place devoid of warmth and humanity. It seems to me it is the loneliest place in the world. It opened my eyes to just how terrible the reality of what the Administration’s policies and practices have led to…innocent people being locked away.

Families destroyed.

Human rights trampled.

Trauma inflicted over and over again.

The “Industrial Detention Complex” is in effect a harsh landscape of prison “camps” that house hundreds of people -most of them people of color -locked away in buildings wrapped in fencing and barbed wire up to the sky.

While the two places we saw were clean enough, the structures are cold and sterile looking, made of cement blocks, filled with harsh lighting that is on 24/7, few windows, endless hallways and heavy, locked doors.

The clanging of keys and the shutting of iron gates is the sound that remains with me.

The Detainees

I found out that the people we met with who are held for days or months are granted no privileges-unlike other prisoners who can take classes, etc. Folks are held in their cells-which are cages really for 23 hours a day. Maybe they get outside briefly, probably they don’t. There are no programs or classes or activities for them.

One man we met mentioned his idea of starting a group teaching others how to speak English. Our lawyer was encouraging him to do that… this activity would give him something meaningful to do and help others…

Health care, we learned, is abominable or largely non-existent. Receiving medication takes a lawyer’s advocacy and it might be weeks before one can get any lifesaving medicine for diabetes or HIV or blood pressure.

I remember sitting next to one person named Jose (not his real name) as he told his story and added that detainees aren’t allowed to receive any mail. Oftentimes the internet is down or the phones aren’t working. Jose missed his family; his kids and he started to cry when he saw the sticky note the paralegal had written after visiting his wife the week before. Even though it wasn’t his wife’s handwriting, the man held it like it was a piece of gold.  It said, “We miss you; we love you.” . . .

During these meetings, we did our best to bring some humanity in with us. Smiling to guards, saying thank you, introducing ourselves, learning their names. The guards seemed friendly enough.

Our lawyer asked questions about the person’s story, their early life, how they came to this country, what they did for work now, who was in their family and considerations for possible strategies for attaining bond and release.

Everyone’s stories were complicated. Of the 10 people we met, all of them were men, fathers, partners- most had fled dangerous conditions in their home countries, crossed the border, asked for asylum, had painful family fractures and hardships. Some had been in this country for decades or just a few years.

One was still a teenager; another was a grandfather. Still another, a DACA recipient.

Comforting

I tried to be as present as possible. To offer whatever small kindness I could and to listen with care to the person in front of me as we gathered around a small table and sat in plastic chairs. Sometimes, after the interview with the lawyer, I was able to offer a kind word or a prayer. Or to put a gentle hand on a shoulder when the sobs came.

While our paralegal translated, I prayed,

Dear God, Dios Mio,

May this person be safe, May this person be released soon. May this person know how beloved they are of you and their family. Oh God.  Help us! Gracias, Amen.

My meager gestures felt woefully inadequate (compared to the enormity of the fear and uncertainty of what each person was facing every minute of every day.)

Unknown Fates

One man, when presented with the reality of imminent deportation to a country he’d never been to before, hung his head in his hands and cried, “How can I go there? I don’t know anyone there?”

Often, without notice, detainees can be whisked out of New England to detention somewhere down South sent even farther away from family and connection. Where are the women? I asked. Apparently, they are sent “elsewhere” perhaps to Louisiana or Texas.  If they don’t have legal counsel, locating them can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

When our time with each person drew to a close, we shook hands, sometimes hugged and a guard escorted them down the hallway. Before returning to their cells, a further humiliation awaited them- a strip search behind a makeshift curtain.

Were they being penalized for seeing their lawyer? It sure looked that way!

Believe it or not, immigration I learned is a civil matter not a criminal one. Let me say that again: immigration is a civil matter not a criminal one.  The thousands who have been imprisoned and deported have been convicted of no crime. And even those who have entered illegally, the law classifies this as a civil matter, a “misdemeanor.”

Journalist Jamelle Bouie wrote recently, “Immigration detention is not a criminal procedure. And yet the Trump administration is treating it as a criminal punishment. It is using detention to inflict pain on anyone — immigrant or citizen — caught in its grasp. It is subjecting detainees to horrific conditions of deprivation and abuse, meant to pressure people into leaving the country, even if they have valid asylum claims or even legal status. And the administration is trying to expand its system of internment camps, purchasing warehouses across the country meant to hold tens of thousands of people”^[1]

The Privilege of Being Free

At the end of one very long day of visits, having been inside for 5 hours, we walked out the doors to the fading sky at twilight. The pink horizon softening my ragged heart and I filled my lungs with deep breaths of air.

It hit me, the relief and the privilege of being free. Right across the street from the Detention Center was a Home Depot, a Panera and new apartment buildings. I wondered if all of those people sitting in their cars in traffic had any idea what inhumanity was taking place behind those front gates?

On the long drive home, I recalled how all of the people we met were Black or Brown folks. People of color who on this particular day were from Central America, Mexico and Haiti. . .

A  Community Bearing Witness

In this season of Lent . . .one holy question to ask ourselves is how are we resisting the dangerous, false narratives of immigrants that have been presented to us and instead see and uplift the humanity and rights of individuals? . . .

It is comforting to know that we as a church community are trying everything we can to support those caught up in the midst of this Super Storm of Inhumanity. That we are learning from what communities in Minneapolis have done to support those most vulnerable.

We are in the right place as we meet this moment together!

Bearing witness to one another’s stories and lives. . .

Bearing witness to the truth of the injustices our neighbors are facing by standing up in the public square in the pouring rain. . .

How have you borne witness to the life of another? What might Love say to each of us as we try to find our way through the stormy wilderness?

Let us keep going over to the other side, my friends.

Love shall prevail . . .

By Rev. Laura Fitzpatrick-Nager (February 22, 2026, The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme) Texts: Exodus 23: 9, Mark 4: 34-41  Minor edits by Chip Filson from original text at https://fccol.org/february-22-2026-sermon/

 

What is more important — what you stand for, or who you stand with?   And,

Trump’s paradoxical logic: I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.