Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival

August 8, 2010

Waterfront Park, Burlington, Vermont

Mark your calendars for our 2010 Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival. Get ready for Sunday August 8, 2010 when the dragon boat races take center stage on the Burlington Waterfront. Our festival fundraising efforts will once again focus on Camp Ta-Kum-Ta as we help them reach their goal of building an Activities Cabin for their new home. Talk it up with your friends, family, and co-workers NOW so that you are ready to register your team when our new website launches on March 30. The field of teams fills up fast. Remember you need 20 paddlers (8 of the paddlers need to women) and one drummer. The cost is $1575 for your team race fees. Your free practice will occur on July 17 or 18. Dragonheart is working hard to make this our best event ever. You can bet that we have already put in our order for blue skies and sunshine. Hope you all will join in the fun as a racer, sponsor, donor, or volunteer. Stay tuned for our March 30th launch date. Are you an interested breast cancer survivor team? Please send an email to Linda at info@ridethedragon.org if you are want to take part in our festivities.

2009 Race Off Results (PDF format)

2009 Race Results (MS Excel format)

2009 Fundraising Efforts (PDF format)

2009 Photos - view or purchase here

2009 LCDBF Spirit Awards (MS Excel format)

2009 SaH Spirit Awards (MS Excel format)

2009 Spirit Donor List (MS Word format)

When Mother Nature forced an abrupt ending to our Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, Dragonheart came up with a fitting ending. We gathered together the top 20 teams from Festival Day and set up a race off for the trophies. Thankfully, it turned up to be a gloriously beautiful night for paddling. Warm temperatures. Glassy water. Wind at our backs. Unfortunately, the top 2 finishers on Festival Day—McDugan's Clan and ExIDX could not make it. We would like to acknowledge their great efforts. This did, however, add some extra excitement for a few more teams. As night fell, the winner was crowned. This year's Citizens Bank Champ Cup winner is Jocks and Bonds, the Dwight Asset Management team. Congrats to them and all of our enthusiastic racers.

We also wanted to pay tribute to our current community team fundraising leader—Wenda's Wings. Clearly, this team is all heart . Wenda's Wings and all of particpated raced with our pledge partner—Camp Ta-Kum-Ta—in mind. Keep those donations coming. We are still working on our fundraising goal.

Anyone who says that sunshine brings happiness has never paddled in the rain (and wind) on Lake Champlain with a boat full of smiling friends! Though I have to admit I am very disappointed that we weren't able to get off all of the festivities yesterday, you warm my heart with your spirit and enthusiasm. Our Dragonheart Vermont team puts their heart and soul into this event. We try to make it the best it can be. The weather is out of our hands though. We appreciate your willingness to hop in the boat or not ,depending on the weather conditions.

We have a lot of unfinished business that was cut short because of the stormy weather. We still have trophies to award, medals to hang around people's necks, Spirit Awards to give out, sponsors to thank, and Silent Auction items to deliver. We are hatching a plan to carry out, if possible, a celebration to honor all of you and our this great community who embraces our Lake Champlain Boat Festival. Stay tuned.

My biggest worry is that the bad weather cut short our fundraising for Camp Ta-Kum-Ta, Vermont's special camp for children with cancer. The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival is expensive event to put on. The money that we raise for our Pledge Partner comes primarily from what we sell on Race Day and the donations that you help us raise with your hats and team efforts. The Activities Cabin that Camp Ta-Kum-Ta needs costs $150,000. We are no where near that goal. Anything you can do to keep the fundraising going is greatly appreciated. Donations can be made online at http://www.ridethedragon.org/donate/secure-on-line The donation can be placed in your team name as we are tracking the donations. People can also mail in donations. Please make checks payable to: Dragonheart Vermont LCDBF and mail to:

Dragonheart Vermont
P.O. Box 65301
Burlington, VT 05406.

For John and I and our entire hard-working Dragonheart team, we thank you all from the bottom of my hearts.

Paddles up to you,
Linda

Welcome to the 2009 Citizens Bank Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival and Sisters at Heart Celebration. It's Vermont’s hottest event of the summer and this year it's all happening August 2 at Burlington's Waterfront Park. Dragon Boat Racing has taken Vermont by storm and last year over 90 teams competed for the Citizens Bank Champ Cup.

Dragonheart Vermont, a breast cancer survivor and supporter dragon boat team, is again hosting this exciting community event. It's all for fun and fundraising. Since the Festival began in 2006, our local community has raised over $300,000 for charity. This year’s Pledge Partners are Vermont's Camp-Ta-Kum-Ta for kids with cancer and Dragonheart Vermont. It's a full day of fun, color and pageantry with music, food, a silent auction and entertainment for the whole family.

So come join in. Get 20 of your friends, family members and co-workers together and create a team. There's no experience necessary. Team registration opens March 30, 2009 with 75 community team and 15 breast cancer survivor team slots available. Last year's team roster filled up fast and some teams missed out, so hurry! Join the Races!