For long-time Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival organizer Jim Smith, watching people having fun and striving to do their best at the event is the payoff for the long hours he spends in organizing meetings every year.
“People are having fun on the water, and they're having fun in the tents,” said Smith, the chair of the festival's organizing committee, speaking to Northern Life during the July 13 event.
“It's a great team-building, camaraderie type of program, and people are having a really good time.”
Even though most people are there to have fun, there's no denying there's also a spirit of competition, he said. “Once you get to the starting line, everybody wants to do their best,” Smith said.
Since the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival was created in 2000, it has raised about $1.4 million for several local non-profit organizations.
Funds raised through this year's festival will go towards a cause close to home for organizers — the Northern Water Sports Centre, a roughly $4-million facility which will be built on Lake Ramsey.
It's hoped the 2013 event will bring in about $70,000 for the facility.
Participants in the 14th annual Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival sprint to the finish line. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
This year's festival featured 55 dragon boat teams and roughly 1,200 paddlers. Smith said the Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival hit its participation peak in about 2005 or 2006, when there were about 150 teams.
He said he thinks there was a lot more interest in the beginning, because the festival was raising funds for the one-site hospital.
“Everything has a cycle,” Smith said. “We're hoping we've reached the trough and we're coming back up in the number of boats. We would like to have in the neighbourhood of 70 to 75 boats.”
In what has become a tradition at dragon boat festivals, participants took time out of their day to attend a cancer awareness ceremony.
Members of two teams made up of breast cancer survivors and their supporters — Fear.Less. from Sudbury and the Warriors of Hope from North Bay — held a moment of silence and released pink carnations into Lake Ramsey.
Warriors of Hope team captain Emmanuelle Gunter said she joined the dragon boat team about eight years ago, less than a year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The 72-year-old said she loves being on the team not only because she loves paddling and being active, but also because of the friendships she's made.
“We support each other,” Gunter said. “We've had some ups and downs. Some of our members have had recurrences (of cancer). It's a great support group, and our paddlers have so much fun.”
There are actually many dragon boat teams made up of breast cancer survivors around the world, and even dragon boat festivals for these teams, she said.
The whole movement was started by a Vancouver doctor to show that women who have had breast cancer can still be active, Gunter said.
Fear.Less. was founded 10 years ago in honour of Jennifer Keck, a Laurentian University professor who died in 2002 after a battle with both breast and lung cancer.
The team's captain, Melanie Cartier, said she became involved in the team after one of her co-workers was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“The people are amazing, the spirit is amazing, you're never going to find people like these people,” she said. “They're courageous, they're stronger than strong. They're loving, they're caring. I just can't say enough about them.”
Chris Gore headed up the Laurentian Nordic Ski Club's dragon boat team. The team's name, Give'r, is in honour of a favourite saying by one of the club's most accomplished alumni, Devon Kershaw.
Being quite athletic, the team usually does quite well in the festival, placing in the top 10 in its category, Gore said.
“It's just fun being together with the people you enjoy being with, and the competition's fun,” he said. “On a day like this, why not be on the water?”
Natalie Kennedy headed up the Health Sciences North Foundation's dragon boat team, HSNF Ryppin'. The team is made up of Health Sciences North staff members.
While they weren't doing as well with their paddling as some teams, HSNF Ryppin' was hoping to score the team spirit award with their upbeat cheers.
“I like that fact that you get to work as a team,” said Kennedy, the education co-ordinator for the hospital's mental health and addictions program. “You get to spend the time outside, and it's for a good cause.”
