Rosanna Lovecchio is the Membership Coordinator for Qajaq USA and has a very active hand in on and off water activities at regional Qajaq USA events.  She is a two term officer in the Jersey Shore Sea Kayak Association.  She is also a co-founder of the Round Valley Rollers – a grass roots group of paddlers dedicated to Traditional Skills and teaching others about them. 
  
Rosanna was bitten by the kayaking bug in 1995 while vacationing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Along with her husband Gary, she took lessons from an outfitter there and slid into a lake nestled in the Grand Tetons.  She was inspired by the sense of freedom, grace and tranquility of the sport. 

A 13 year hiatus raising their daughter Jessica never dampened the desire to own and paddle a kayak.  So in 2008, Rosanna and Gary decided it was time to get back into kayaking as a family.  They bought a few plastic kayaks and Euro paddles and took as many skills and rescues classes as they could find.  During one of these classes, they saw 2 guys (Bob Malloy and Ed Mann) rolling their kayaks and paddling with skinny sticks.  It was one of the coolest things she ever saw and she wanted to do THAT.

Shortly after Rosanna bought a sea kayak and joined a local paddling club where she met an ambassador of Traditional Kayaking …Terry O’Malley.  The following year, Terry literally took her Euro paddle from her on a paddle and made her use a Greenland paddle.  She was hooked.  That week she ordered her very own GP.

Not long after, Terry put her into her first SOF teaching her to paddle and balance brace.  Learning new skills that were not main stream and had a historic base struck a cord inside her heart.  In addition, Terry’s willingness to share and teach this information made her want to become a part of this community. 
      
Rosanna attended HRGF that year where she got her first roll thanks to Jane Taylor.  That set everything in motion…rolling sessions at Round Valley Reservoir with friends, buying her first SOF from Joy McNeil, attending DelMarva Paddlers Retreat where she officially joined Qajaq USA and being invited to Walden Pond to study with Dan Segal.    

She continues to attend HRGF and DelMarva and volunteers at Qajaq USA events and  rolling demos whenever possible.  She enjoys spreading the word about Traditional Kayaking to anyone who will listen and wants to learn.  You can often see her working with others sharing her skills when at Round Valley.  Rosanna assists with tuilik and aquilisak workshops as well as running the raffle at DelMarva with Gary.