Awards

Bring Home a Trophy!

You can be in the Winners’ Circle! With a little grit, determination, teamwork and great costumes, your team will bring home some really cool awards! We have many chances to win shiny trophies all day long.

How the Races are Staged and the Winners Determined

The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival races are 300 meter sprint races that last between one minute and one and a half minutes depending on team skills and water conditions. Each team competes in at least 2 heats, one in the morning and one right after lunch. Teams have these two chances to post their single fastest time. If your first heat is a flop, not to worry, you still have another heat to do better, win a Challenge Cup trophy and qualify for the Championship Round which is comprised of the fastest 25 teams.

These 25 teams are determined by the best time from the first two heats, not their combined time. The fastest 5 teams in this third heat win our Championship cups, then race one final time in the last race of the day, the Big Kahuna…the Citizens Bank Champ Cup! Is your team ready?

Challenge Cup Awards

The second races after lunch are the races for the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival Challenge Cups. The Challenge Cup races are grouped by team biographies. Health Care teams race each other; financial services teams race each other; public service teams are together and so on. It’s all for bragging rights, trophies and a lot of friendly competition. Trash talking is allowed! The 15 winning teams in this heat bring home positive vibes, great memories and shiny hardware.

Championship Cups

After the Challenge Cups are complete, festival officials rank the 25 fastest teams of the day who move on to the Championship Round to vie for the 5 Championship trophies:

• Championship Race #1-The Granite Cup comprised of teams ranked 21-25
• Championship Race #2-The Pewter Cup comprised of teams ranked 16-20
• Championship Race #3-The Bronze Cup comprised of teams ranked 11-15
• Championship Race #4-The Silver Cup comprised of teams ranked 6-10

The Citizens Bank Champ Cup

…and FINALLY the 5 five top teams race for the right to say, “We’re number one!”. The Champ Cup trophy is a beautiful silver dragon boat, so get in shape and be ready to win it all!

Spirit Awards (the really fun part!)

Every year at the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, we give prizes
to the participating teams for their show of SPIRIT.
The whole reason to have this festival is to have fun and raise money for a very good cause. How better to do that then to have a lot of SPIRIT?

We will be awarding prizes to the community teams in the following Categories:

I encourage your teams to participate and show your SPIRIT MAXIMA!

The judging will take place by a wonderful group of Spirit Judges, ready to listen, watch, encourage, admire and judge your grand SPIRIT. So join the fun and let your SPIRIT SOAR! (See below for logistics about your performances.) Between now and festival day, I encourage you all to get busy and write those special words, design those fantastic t-shirts, sew those banners, plan those campsite decorations, choreograph those moves and dress-up your drummer!  If your team chooses to design a t-shirt, consider printing one extra shirt to donate to Dragonheart Vermont. Drop t-shirts off at the Awards Tent. We plan to eventually make banners of all the t-shirts we receive and display them at future festivals.

So come on along and let your SPIRIT SHINE! If you have any questions or need more encouragement to REALLY get involved, contact me at: redbnuthatch@gmail.com.

Paddles up! Smiles On!     Liz Alton- Head Spirit Angel

Spirit Award Judging Logistics:

Community Teams:

1)    Judging of songs, cheers, shirts, drummer, dance routine and total enthusiasm will take place at the marshalling area near the bike path during the first heat of racing.

2)    Come to the marshalling area at least 45 minutes before your race time

3)    Bring any props, costumes etc. with you and prepare to dance, sing and show your SPIRIT MAXIMA!

4)    You will perform for the Spirit Angels, they will have signs identifying them, before you move to the tents and warm up with exercises followed by your first racing heat.

5)    All props and costumes not going in the boat will be left in plastic bags marked with your team’s name. Team Captains need to pick up your prop bag after racing the first heat. Teams will then proceed directly after their first race to the team picture taking area.

6)    Campsites and decorations, banners and overall SPIRIT will be judged at your team’s assigned camp area.

Spirit Award Presentation

1)    Awards will be determined after the first heat, during the lunch period.

2)    Award winners will be posted on the race result boards and announced by the Athlete’s Village Announcer at 2:00 PM

3)    All Awards need to be picked up by a team representative (or the whole team!) at the Awards Tent after 2:00 PM and before the final cup races.  Look for the sign “Got Spirit? Let’s show it!”