Staff
The second-annual Boundary Waters Dragon Boat Festival held on Canada Day was quite successful.
“We had an amazing turnout,” said committee member Sarah Marusyk.
“It’s hard to track exactly how many people were down on the water but we had 13 teams≤” she noted.
“So we had probably about 200 paddlers participate in the festival, as well.
“The day went relatively smoothly and I think everyone had a lot of fun,” Marusyk added.
The Fort Frances Dental Centre’s team, named “‘Dragon’s Breath,” took first place, followed by Smokey’s Bears (MNR) in second and BP Royalties (Boston Pizza) third.
“There was lots to do for the kids,” said Marusyk. “The individuals who were down at the water selling crafts had a lot of fun and were really successful selling crafts.
“And food vendors sold out quickly.”
The “22 Dragons” promoters from Montreal were here once again to run the races, and although they are costly, “The reality is we need their expertise,” said Marusyk.
“It’s nice to have people out on the water that know what they are doing,” she noted.
“It’s a capacity-building event so eventually the hope is we will have the capacity to run it ourselves,” Marusyk added.
“It’s a complicated thing; in fact, there’s only one festival in all of Canada that doesn’t bring in a promoter,” she explained.
“Maybe down the road, as it grows and as we gain more sponsors, it will become a bigger fundraising event.”
The current committee will be meeting next week to go over what worked and what didn’t, and see if there were any profits.
After expenses are covered, any money raised will be donated to Community Living Fort Frances & District.
“It always is nice to see things kick off with sunny weather—it makes things a lot easier for set-up and for the event to sun smoothly,” Marusyk said of July 1.
“It was really cool to see some new faces on the water,” she enthused. “We did have some repeat teams from last year but we had a lot of new people out there, too.
“They had a blast both with the practices the week prior and getting out on the water [for the actual races].
“It’s really exciting stuff to see people learning and it’s neat to see how quickly people learn how to effectively paddle the dragon boat,” she added.
“It was also nice to see the team spirit—everyone was in it for the fun.”
Meanwhile, anyone interested in being part of the planning for the 2014 festival is encouraged to call Northern Community Development Services (NCDS) at 274-2282.
“We’re hoping that the people who participated in the festival, and got to know what it is all about, will be interested in jumping on board with the committee,” Marusyk said.
