Pink Dragon Boat Racing - The Big Event

Posted September 5, 2009, 9:59 am in News by Susan Whigham


When paddles dig into the water at the Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival at Walt Disney World Resort on Oct. 17, they will send out waves of hope from one group of boaters.

Women Playing For T.I.M.E. and Team Survivor Orlando have joined forces to sponsor the first Pink Dragon Boat Racing Team in Central Florida.  The team,Warriors On Water, will make its debut during the landmark race and showcase the group’s mission to empower women with the physical, mental and spiritual strength to walk through a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Close bonds, alliances and shared stories – along with hours spent paddling in practice – inspire team members not only to exercise their bodies but also to discover other strengths within. Sore muscles and damp clothes take a backseat as women paddle to the rhythm of an empowering goal.

That message of hope and strength propels Warriors’ captain Tricia Daniels and her teammates. Daniels is a breast cancer survivor and serves as chairman for Women Playing for T.I.M.E.’s Pink Dragon Boat Committee. The team coach is Kat Fieler, a breast cancer survivor and personal trainer who teaches breast cancer recovery classes that offer fellowship, relaxation techniques and exercises.

As Warriors on Water prepares for its debut, it joins a growing number of teams from around the world – and two other groups in Miami and Tampa. Breast cancer survivors historically have not been encouraged to exercise, but that assumption began changing in the late 1990s – thanks to Canadian sports-medicine physician Don McKenzie.

Through McKenzie’s research project, the 2,500-year-old sport of dragon boat racing was introduced to breast cancer survivors in British Columbia. McKenzie and the women  in the study found that dragon boat racing aided the physical recovery of breast cancer survivors and enhanced mental and emotional recovery. A 2005 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that breast cancer patients who do three to five hours of moderate exercise per week are about 50 percent less likely to die from the disease than sedentary women. Additional studies have shown that paddling builds upper body strength and helps prevent  lymphedema, a common side effect of breast cancer treatment.

This year, more than 2,200 team participants and 30,000 spectators are expected to attend the Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival, held annually at Walt Disney World Resort and hosted by Disney's Wide World of Sportsâ®.  The organizer for the Orlando International Dragon Boat Festival is Great White North (GWN), a Canadian-based company.  For video of races, please click here. Each year, GWN produces more than 40 dragon boat events, which raise millions of dollars for community and charitable partners.

If you are a breast cancer survivor and want to learn more, click here. Paddlers are also needed for dragon boat teams that are forming to show their support for Warriors on Water, Women Playing For T.I.M.E. and Team Survivor Orlando. If you would like to race on a team to show your support, click here.

Corporate sponsorships are also available. For more information, contact Lynda Canatay at 321-841-2272 or click here to send her an email.

Ed. Note: This article was provided by Susan Whigham, new WPFT Volunteer



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