THUNDER BAY -- Despite a low turnout for this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, organizers say there were more than enough participants to keep the tradition going.
Saturday’s 500-metre dragon boat race across Boulevard Lake only drew in eight teams but that was enough to carry on the tradition and focus on other paddling sports as well.
“It has gotten a lot smaller every year,” said festival chair Volker Kromm. “Last year we were actually going to cancel the event because of the draining at Boulevard Lake, so we lost a lot of momentum.”
This year organizers decided to add to the festival as interests have spiked in many other areas of paddling sports.
“We have created an all paddle sport festival, we combined all the interests that’s happened with stand-up boards, canoeing and kayaking,” Kromm said.
“Our numbers are down, but the interest in all the other sports is really starting to grow.”
Kromm said organizers are waiting to hear whether or not Boulevard Lake will be drained next summer to make a decision on the festival’s future.
He added that it would be a good opportunity for organizers to take a year off and reinvent the festival.
“Hopefully it doesn’t kill the event, but it might give us the opportunity to make it bigger with the other paddle sports.”
The festival's lack of participants didn’t stop Barbara Britton and her team, Dragons of Hope, from racing head to Dragon head in support of breast cancer survivors.
“I’m racing today to support all the girls in the boat who’ve had breast cancer,” Britton said after her team’s first race.
“It’s something that’s close to me because my mother had breast cancer and both my sisters have had breast cancer as well.”
The Dragons of Hope team has been paddling in the Thunder Bay Dragon Boat Festival since the beginning.
They are a group of breast cancer survivors and supporters who come together every summer to race their boat across Boulevard Lake.
“It’s great,” Britton said. “They are such a support group, they’ve all had breast cancer with the exception of three of us who are supporting members,” she said.
She added that the team supports each other no matter what, they’ve all been through a similar experience and even though she isn’t a breast cancer survivor she said it’s something to be proud of.
