But expect local businesses to get a boost in January if teams as large as Harvard and Radcliffe keep coming back.

Roden guessed that the average visiting crew brings 40-60 people; Harvard, on the other hand, brought 191.

And after a grueling practice, rowers tend to be pretty hungry.

That can make the difference for small businesses such as the Juiceatery, the team’s favorite smoothie spot this trip. As a rower on the women’s crew team, I went in to order a “milkberry” smoothie last Friday, only to be surprised when the girl behind the counter told me she was giving rowers a special discount because they brought so much business.

While our performance on the water may be what helps raise the profile of the Shane Center, if we are to have any kind of impact on the surrounding area, it will be with our appetites.

But maybe there’s a way we can contribute a little bit more. Now that we’ve gotten rave reviews from Roden for our behavior, maybe we can take it a little bit farther next year.

Because crew is such an exhausting sport, it’s easy to forget what a luxury it is. Everything about it—the travel, the boats, the oars, even the ergs—costs money. Even the best rowers in the world don’t turn a profit from it. Perhaps for these reasons, rowing has earned the reputation as a prep-school sport, one where the rich succeed.

Those more familiar with the sport know that’s not true—certainly not at the collegiate level, where anyone can walk on to an elite program such as Harvard, as I did last year.

But not everyone realizes that. The rowing world is very much separate from mainstream athletics, which is why we rowers hear Harry Parker and think of the rowing legend when others think they misheard “Harry Potter.”

But we have an opportunity to show otherwise. What if one afternoon, instead of rowing, we volunteered at a Miami elementary school or soup kitchen? Then we could give back to the community that plays host to us in January, allowing us an escape from the erg. It’s one thing to buy smoothies; it’s another to demonstrate appreciation.

Everyone seems to look up to sports stars. Maybe someday they’ll count Harry Parker, Liz O’Leary, and the Harvard and Radcliffe Crew teams among those stars.

We’ve already got a holiday, right?

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.