- February 11, 2025
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Ann Medlar looks like any other rower as she keeps a straight course with the help of a prototype navigational guidance system that beeps when she veers off course. Photo by Jacque Estes
Coach Bob Van Twyver places Ann Medlar' s finger on the reset button of a navigational system prototype for vision impaired rowers. Photo by Jacque Estes
Kathleen Trutschil rows back to the dock under the guidance of Coach Bob Van Twyver. Photo by Jacque Estes
Volunteers and Van Tywver carry the boats down the ramp to the water. Photo by Jacque Estes
John Kerr leads Kathleen Trutschil, Ann Medlar and Carol Thomas down the dock ramp at the Halifax Rowing Association. Photo by Jacque Estes
Getting in is the scariest. Carol Thomas gets a helping hand into the boat from John Kerr. Photo by Jacque Estes
John Kerr helps Ann Medlar with "Mr. Beep." Kerr began volunteering with the rowing group after sponsoring Medlar for membership in the Ormond Beach Lions. Photo by Jacque Estes
Ann looks like any other rower as she keeps a straight course with the help of a prototype navigational guidance system that beeps when she veers off course. Photo by Jacque Estes
Coach Bob Van Twyver uses a megaphone to talk to his rowers. Photo by Jacque Estes
Ann Medlar is a recreational and competitive rower. Photo by Jacque Estes
Kathleeen Trutschil enjoys her time on the water. Photo by Jacque Estes
Coach Bob Van Twyver directs Medlar back to the dock. Photo by Jacque Estes
Don Medlar helps Carol Thomas. Photo by Jacque Estes
Before Ann Medlar dipped her oars into the Intracoastal Waterway and rowed away from the Halifax River Association’s dock, she checked with “Mr. Beep.” Mr. Beep isn’t her coach, or even a man, but a navigational system prototype that she and other members of the Vision Impaired Persons Rowing Society have been testing.
Medlar, who lost her sight after a car accident in 1979, was using Mr. Beep for the third time under the guidance of rowing Coach Bob Van Twyver and her Ormond Beach Lions sponsor John Kerr.
Rower Kathleen Trutschil, a member of the Ormond-by–the-Sea and Daytona Beach Lions clubs and an avid baseball player, learned about the beeping navigational system at one of her Beep Ball baseball games. She introduced the designer to the rowing group and they agreed to test the system.
As the small group rowed north, Van Twyver sat cross-legged in his motorized row boat, megaphone to his mouth, watching the three boats of rowers. Two other visually impaired rowers, Kathleen Trutschel and Carol Thomas were also on the water.
“You’ve heard of the three blind mice? We’re the three blind rowers,” Thomas laughed.
The group rows about 1,500 meters two times a week.
“Use your right oar; you’re coming up on a marker; twenty to 30 more strokes to the bridge,” he calls through the megaphone. The outboard motor on his boat roars into action if they haven’t heard him.
As he guides his boat back and forth between the rowers, passenger and volunteer John Kerr watches for larger boats approaching so the rowers can be alerted to impending wakes. Today there is little traffic on the ICW and the current is calm.
Van Twyver admitted that when he was approached about coaching the visually impaired group he wasn’t looking for another job. He was already the coach for ERAU rowing team, the Halifax Rowing Association, and Brooke Rehabilitation, but since it was summer and a traditionally slow time, he agreed.
Not only did he enjoy the sessions, he found them extremely rewarding. During the summer, a hearing and visually disabled 23-year-old man came for lessons. Van Twyver said the young man began to learn the technique within about six lessons. An interpreter signed the instructions onto the young man’s palm and face.
Kerr, secretary of the Ormond Beach Lions Club, volunteers about 250 hours a year with the group.
“I sponsored Ann (Medlar) and we pledge to support the person we are sponsoring,” Kerr said. “She was involved in rowing, so I started volunteering.”
All agreed that the scariest part is not being out on the open water, but getting in and out of the boats.
“Team work and trust are so important,” Medlar said. “Without that you have nothing.”
