I, personally, would like to send a huge thank you to the organizers and volunteers who made Race the River Dragon Boat Regatta possible. This was a first for Campbell River, and the Dragon Boat races were a huge success, thoroughly enjoyed by the teams themselves and all of our spectators.
To team River Spirit, who’s fanciful musings last fall, about how great it would be if we could host a festival here in Campbell River become an actuality. Upon receiving positive feedback from tentative enquiries made to city council, and realizing that such a huge endeavor needed the organizational skills of both Campbell River’s Dragon Boat teams, they invited BraveHearts to co-host this event. Nancy and her team eagerly accepted this challenge, and a committee from both teams was formed early this year. This committee is to be applauded for creating what is hopefully the first of many Dragon Boat regattas in our city.
To the City of Campbell River for all of your help and assistance, your enthusiasm for this event was encouraging and uplifting.
To the many, many volunteers who worked so hard making sure everything ran smoothly. Many roses to you all.
To Search and Rescue and St. John’s Ambulance, on hand as always to ensure a safe event.
To the generous sponsors of both teams, without whom the paddlers would be unable to continue in their mission to bring awareness of breast and other cancers to our community.
To Marine Harvest, who hosted a magnificent Salmon BBQ, the proceeds of which was given back to River Spirit and BraveHearts, to be donated to a charity of their choosing.
To Serious Coffee, for providing hot and cold drinks throughout the day, and delicious goodies too. Also for organizing our music and entertainment, they were terrific.
To every single person who put time and effort into making this a success, thank you. Roses to all of you!
To the members of BraveHearts and River Spirit who worked untiringly to bring this event to us.
And finally, to the dragon boat racers themselves, your skills at paddling were a joy to watch, and the excitement was almost unbearable as those boats came flying across the finish line. Well done.
Hopefully we will see you all again next year.
Valerie Larson,
Campbell River