Henrietta woman brings competitive canoeing to people with disabilities

A marathon canoe racer since 1971, Jan Whitaker, of Henrietta, was teaching outrigger canoe lessons at the Genesee Waterways Center in Rochester in 1997 when she met a 9-year-old girl who had mobility impairment in her legs, requiring her to use leg braces. Whitaker, who had never before taught the sport to a person with disabilities, began showing her the ropes of outrigger canoeing, a type of canoeing that uses a canoe with a stabilizing pontoon, usually affixed to the left side of the canoe, to provide additional stability.