Published: August 03, 2008 11:13 pm      

CANAL CRUISE: New Hampshire couple rows to raise money for Habitat for Humanity

A New Hampshire couple will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary today by taking a cruise — a 340-mile haul under their own power, soliciting support for Habitat for Humanity affiliates along the way.

Heather and Gunnar Baldwin’s 18-foot, oar-powered Adirondack guideboat is planned to carry them the entire length of the Erie Canal. Their journey began here Sunday morning and will easily take them the entire month of August to complete.

“I can’t think of a better way to spend it,” Heather, 60, said while waiting for Gunnar, 71, to return after a stop at the Amherst boat launch, across the canal from Tan Tara Golf Club on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s fantastic exercise. It’s a full-body workout every day.”

The trip is sponsored by Gunnar’s employer, Georgia-based TOTO USA, one of the world’s largest plumbing products manufacturers.

The mission is to support Habitat projects through donations given in the name of their journey as well as TOTO’s pledge to contribute plumbing fixtures for 15 Habitat affiliate programs in places like Buffalo, Syracuse, and elsewhere along the canal route.

Gunnar, a senior water efficiency expert for the firm, will meet with members of the 15 chapters, raising awareness about “green” construction with regard to the program and TOTO’s planned product donations.

“Usually they come out and greet us,” Gunnar said. “And we try to convince them to build green. I’m trying to convince Habitat everywhere to build green. It’s just good design, so to speak. So that’s one of my objectives, among many.”

TOTO has budgeted for about 30 high-efficiency toilets and another 30 sinks for the entire mission, Gunnar said.

“The biggest user of water is the toilet,” he said. “They’re very high efficiency — TOTO has led the industry (in that).”

He said in the past 15 years, the company has grown from the smallest in the market to the third largest.

Heather said the company became involved with the volunteer organization’s need-based house building mission about five years ago, at the Baldwins’ behest.

Since then, Heather and Gunnar have completed similar trips such as from Key West, Fla., to Norfolk, Va., and Newburgh to Rouses Point, N.Y. Heather said the boat, made of wood and Fiberglass and weighing about 100 pounds, has traveled 1,500 miles so far.

This Erie Canal trip will represent the sixth leg of a journey for Habitat that has taken place on numerous waterways around the country. Gunnar, a former team member and crew coach at Yale, among other rowing superlatives, is using his talents to spread awareness of his company’s products and their place in the nationwide push for green construction.

Before this latest mission, the pair roughly five years ago rowed for a hospital in Ecuador specializing in the treatment of leprosy.

Once the receipts for donations along the canal route are tallied, the money will be distributed among the various chapters based on the expected number of construction or housing rehabilitation projects they’ve planned.

The Baldwins have already met with representatives with the Buffalo chapter, founded in 1985. The volunteer affiliate has 17 building projects planned for the coming year, Executive Director David Zablotny said.

He said the roughly 1,700 such local affiliates across the U.S. often are eligible for certain manufacturer’s product contributions. The nationwide program seeks to build houses for those with a particular hardship, and requires hours of “sweat equity” on the part of the intended recipients.

“We look for any kind of help that we can get,” Zablotny said. “Anytime we get an opportunity like this we’re fully behind that.”

So the Baldwins, of Thornton, N.H., can’t exactly be sure where they’ll celebrate their anniversary today — but it’ll be about as far as they can get at about 5 mph, somewhere between Amherst and the Hudson River.

Heather is a marine biologist who has taught at the university level. She admitted the journey relies on the support of others, and the couple has relied on strangers more than once to provide safe harbor, such as during a storm on Lake Champlain. The guidebook can only withstand swells of up to two feet.

“Everybody we come across has been wonderful,” she said. “To come out here. ... The kindness — our fellow man is really pretty awesome.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulleyat 693-1000, ext. 114.