News
Rain or shine, Metro oarsmen and oarswomen will have their paddles and drums ready on Friday and Saturday for the eighth annual Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival.
Known for its fun and competitive atmosphere, the festival gives 60 per cent of proceeds to the Lions Sick Children's Fund and 40 per cent to a registered charity of each team's choice.
Eighth annual racing fundraiser starts Friday for Lion's Sick Kids Fund
Rain or shine, Metro oarsmen and oarswomen will have their paddles and drums ready on Friday and Saturday for the eighth annual Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival.
Known for its fun and competitive atmosphere, the festival gives 60 per cent of proceeds to the Lions Sick Children's Fund and 40 per cent to a registered charity of each team's choice.
Sick kids fund supports Metro families
There is no shortage of motivation to come out and paddle or cheer from the sidelines.
The high school teams race on Friday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. and the community and corporate teams race Saturday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.. Each team races at least two heats before the finals.
The races are on Jones Lake again this year, and the festival base is at Hillcrest School.
The heavy, colourful dragon boats sit shallow on the water and teams of 20 people work together to the sound of a drummer, and the cries of their steerperson, as they travel across Jones Lake.
'The festival has really become a popular annual event for the community,' says Carole Murphy, who co-chairs the event with Norval McConnell. 'The west end community where we hold it, near Jones Lake, is always so supportive and we get lots of people out to watch the teams compete.
'It's become something the high schools look forward to, as well, and we can tell because each year, a couple more high school teams come on board.' Both days of the event are very popular and Carole says that Friday night's high school race is really special. There are 18 high school teams registered this year, including five or six from Tantramar High in Sackville and two from Amherst, N.S.
'I just love Friday night when the schools and their colours hit the boat, and sing their high school songs, and all in the name of raising money for a really good cause,' says Carole. 'Then on Saturday, you have corporate teams but you also have community groups, or just 20 friends who have gotten together to raise money for Lions Sick Children Fund.' There is also a ceremony for the breast cancer awareness teams midday Saturday, between the end of second heats and the beginning of the finals. Two of the six teams will be the last two to compete, followed by the carnation ceremony.
'We have a carnation ceremony that takes place on the lake to recognize others who have suffered from breast cancer and the survivors who are paddling on the boat,' says Carole. 'It's a very touching ceremony and our festival is always pleased to recognize our breast cancer teams in this way.' This year's Dragon Boat Festival is special for breast cancer survivor team 'tit Bateau, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
'They'll be celebrating throughout the weekend and we actually have six breast cancer teams that will be paddling in the festival,' says Carole.
The 'tit Bateau team is hosting other breast cancer survivor teams from Halifax, Cape Breton, Truro, New Glasgow and Saint John and some members of Canadians Abreast, a national breast cancer survivor dragon boat team.
Carole Murphy said that breast cancer research is a popular cause among teams, but the charities vary quite a bit, depending on what means a lot to the team.
Six dragon boats have been rented from Montreal company 22 Dragons, and they arrived in Moncton in time for the team practices, a week prior to the event. An experienced steerperson is provided to each team, someone available who has been doing dragon boat festivals for years.
Sistema New Brunswick, a free after-school musical education program run by the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, decided to enter their staff for the first time last year and they won the Saturday community-corporate event. They will be back this year, in their orange, yellow and turquoise, with 10 members of last year's winning team in order to defend their title.
Teamwork, respect and focus are already pillars of the Sistema program and this year's team captain, executive director Don Matheson, said that their organization loves to be a part of the Dragon Boat Festival. He added that it began as a teamwork and bonding experience for Sistema staff.
'It's been fun,' Don says. 'We now have a team of 29 people; they're comprised of 10 returning from last year, several of our teachers, friends of staff members, and we also have about eight or nine members that are family of Sistema kids. So it's really quite a community team.' Their registered charity of choice, of course, is Sistema New Brunswick, who now gives musical instruction to more than 220 children in their Moncton program alone. First established in 2009 with 50 children in Moncton, Sistema now also holds programs in Saint John and Richibucto, with a fourth site planned for the Tobique First Nation in September.
The more experienced Co-operators has been participating in the Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival for several years now, and this year's team captain, Jon Sheen, says he wishes all of the team good luck, with an enthusiastic 'Paddles up!' This will be his fifth year participating in the festival, but his first as captain.
'It's just an action-packed day,' says Sheen. 'It's really all about the charities; for the most part it's about supporting the Lions Sick Children's Fund and it's a big community event. There's all kinds of vendors there, all kinds of family members and community groups, it's just a day of fun.' The Co-operators team, named the Co-opegators, donates its full fundraising efforts to the Lions Sick Children's Fund. The team puts out sign-up sheets as early as fall for employees wishing to sign up for fundraising, paddling or both.
The Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival began in 2005, when Dave Owen and Ron Pascal from the Lions Sick Children's Fund found that a major fundraiser was needed in the community to help provide the charity with funds to share between Metro families struggling with a child's illness.
'When you think about a child with an illness and often a life-threatening illness, sometimes it is short term, it's a surgery required but the family has to go to the IWK and spend several nights or several weeks there while their child is recovering,' says Carole. 'Other times it's something that could be a lifelong disease, where there are large costs that are not covered or there's a need for a retrofit to the home or equipment that the family can't afford. That's who we are helping and I think everyone can relate to the stress and anxiety that parents would have with a sick child, even without the financial burden.' From March 2001 to 2012, The Lions Sick Children's Fund has given out $705,902 to families in Metro and beyond, to help them with transportation, accommodation or other costs related to the care of a sick child.
Carole Murphy and the organizing committee also acknowledged the community sponsors who help them with the costs of running the Dragon Boat Festival.
