By Bill Furbee, Contributor
In September, breast cancer survivors and their supporters will reconvene at AJ Jolly Lake in Alexandria – boat paddles in hand – to compete in the annual “Paddling for the Pink” Kentucky Dragon Boat Festival.
The Kentucky Dragon Boat Festival has taken place every year since 2010, is presented by the Paddling for Cancer Awareness (P4CA) organization, and hosted by its affiliate Kentucky Thorough-Breasts Dragon Boat Team.
The origins of dragon boat racing itself go back to ancient China; the watersport requires 20 coordinated and paddling participants, working together to bring a decorated boat across the finish line. The United States Dragon Boat Federation, of which P4CA is a member, exists to “foster the development of opportunities for individuals diagnosed with breast cancer to revive and thrive through participation in the sport of dragon boat,” according to its website.
“Our festival is many things to many people,” says Jim Thaxton, co-founder of P4CA, “but at the heart it is an excellent team-building experience.”
Teams can be made up of corporate, church, or community groups. In fact, Thaxton says, a number of teams travel from other states – one is even based in Canada – to compete in Northern Kentucky. Participants range in age from 20-somethings to 80-somethings.
Thaxton estimates that each individual team’s visit contributes about $5,000 to the local economy; more important, however, is the festival’s impact on support and awareness of breast cancer research and treatment, raising over $10,000 in donations for cancer research organizations and individuals undergoing treatment.
The Kentucky Thorough-Breasts Dragon Boat Team was formed in 2008 and has inspired “camaraderie, teamwork and giving back to the community while fostering optimism and promoting a healthy lifestyle through the sport of dragon boat racing,” according to its own website. It’s the only team “anywhere in the world,” Thaxton says, that has its own fleet of dragon boats, all the equipment needed to put on its own festival, and has been doing so for the past nine years.
Registration fees cover participation in a practice session before race day, necessary equipment, a steersperson, and a dragon boat drummer for each team. They then compete in three 250-meter heats, with awards for the top three finishers in each division.
At the Kentucky Dragon Boat Festival, they run continuously from about 8 am until about 2 in the afternoon. They’re “as exciting as any competition you can imagine,” Thaxton says.
Each Dragon Boat Festival also includes a Rose Ceremony, which celebrates breast cancer survivors and honors those who have passed. These events provide supporters with an opportunity “to remember those who have died from cancer, celebrate survivors, and clearly send a message to all about the importance of screening and early detection,” Thaxton shares. “Survivors and their supporters are given a rose or another stemmed flower which, at the end of the ceremony, are tossed into the water as a symbol of the love for each other and those who are no longer with us.”
No matter the season, it’s always a good time to get involved with the Kentucky Thorough-Breasts, Thaxton says. The team plans well in advance, participating in events far outside of our region as well as locally.
Each January, for example, the team votes on which competitions outside of the area to compete in, from a list of about 20 or more in the United States and Canada.
In June, the team traveled to Buffalo, New York, to compete in the breast cancer (BCS) and women’s divisions at the 14th Annual Hope Chest festival, winning gold in the BCS and silver in the women’s divisions. They have also competed in Chicago, and in August they will travel to Oriental, North Carolina. Next August, they’ll be competing in France against as many as 150 other BCS teams from around the world.
“Wherever they go,” Thaxton says, “our teams serve as gracious ambassadors of the tri-state region.”
To learn more, visit p4ca.org or KyThoroughBreasts.org.
Photos provided.
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