A tireless competitor in a variety of sports, Roberta Shapiro is also an enthusiastic sports promoter, particularly of marathon canoeing. Nationally rated in that event, she holds several National and State championships. She holds a black belt in judo, a green belt in karate and has placed 3rd in the Empire Games Masters cross country skiing competition.

Roberta was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on October 9, 1943. After graduation from high school in Westbury, N.Y. and two years at Hofstra University, she married Gary Shapiro in 1963. After moving to Utica in 1972 with her husband and two children, Roberta pursued marathon canoeing and her other sports with great energy. She has won seven top finishes nationally in canoeing pairs competition in 1988-90 and many more at the state level. She has taken first place twice in the New England championships.

She is an officer in the New York State Canoe Racing Association. She is the founder and organizer of the Budweiser Canoe Classic held every year since 1987 at Lock 20 on the Barge Canal in Marcy, bringing over 300 racers from the northeast to compete. This race is part of The Good Old Summertime Festival along with the Boilermaker road race which Roberta has run in three times.

An executive assistant in her husband's business, she serves as an EMT volunteer with the Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps. A tireless advocate of the use of the Barge Canal for recreational purposes, she can often be seen on the canal giving lessons and pointers to fellow canoeists, a formidable competitor who "preaches what she practices".