2014 IBCPC Participatory Dragon Boat Festival, Sarasota FL

Sarasota. What a week it has been in Sarasota!

The weekend was filled with women from eight different countries. Never have we been surrounded by a more postive, fun, caring bunch of women.
The event was held at Nathan Benderson Park, a man made island with state-of-the-art technology. The event was well organized and the schedule never fell behind.
There were a couple of pink fire trucks at the event with firemen wearing pink fire gear. Apparently they travel around the country supporting women's health. Josh, the youngest firefighter was probably the most popular person at the regatta and couldn't walk two feet without being stopped to have his picture taken. At the party on Saturday night he was going through the crowd giving big hugs.
The Sandy Smith Global Race was held on Sunday afternoon. It was in memory of a woman who was instrumental in establishing dragon boat teams all over the world. Sadly, she lost her battle in 2005 and left behind a husband and two girlswho were 9 and 11 at the time. Her family was at the closing ceremony and her oldest daughter gave a heartfelt, moving speech about all that her mother was.
The flower ceremony was held after the race, very emotional to see so many survivors waving their pink carnations as we remembered those who had lost their battle. There were many tears and hugs.
We competed in four races and placed 16th overall out of 102 teams. There were no gold, silver or bronze medals handed out, but everyone received a participatory medal.
Dr. Don McKenzie from UBC was the keynote speaker at the closing ceremony. Although there were eight lanes of races this weekend, Dr. McKenzie talked about lane nine, the race against breast cancer. Even though the emotional, moving, uplifting weekend is over, we will continue to spread our message of hope.
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