At nine in the morning on Saturday (June 10), Peterborough’s Little Lake is like glass. The sounds of the early racers echo over the water, the sun hints at the scorch to follow, and the unmistakeable words of the race announcer over the sound system fill Crescent Street, now lined with tents.
At one end of the festival space, a van pulls up and a tower of coolers is placed on the sidewalk next to a tent marked Volunteer Lunches. Sponsors are erecting attention-grabbing flags. The trophy table is draped to display silver cups, even the tongue-in-cheek Booby Prize.
At the other end, paddlers belonging to smartly dubbed teams such as the Pink Sensations, Wild Water Power, Hope Floats, and Rockers and Knockers receive last-minute instruction from captains, cheer over final fundraising tallies, and welcome family friends who will soon form the sea of spectators and paddlers flowing through the festival space.
In the middle of this, John Gullick answers his two-way radio. The caller is asking where to find extra toilet paper for the portable toilets. John finds the answer and dispatches a toilet-paper supplier in the correct direction.
“You just never know what you will be asked on Race Day,” he says warmly. “It could be anything from where’s this or that, to ‘Where’s the toilet paper?'”
And John knows the answers — he’s been volunteering with the festival since it started 17 years ago, and he’s been the race director for the past four. He was also chair of the festival for nine and a half years. To boot, he’s a cancer survivor himself — although he says that happened after he was already hooked on the festival.
“I don’t think you will ever find a family that hasn’t been touched by cancer in some way,” he says. “The cause … well, it just took hold of me.”
This is John’s last performance as race director. He’s passing the torch; Debbie Kay will pick it up next year.
“It’s been a fabulous run,” he says, adding that, next year, he will return to a previous role — chairing the safety committee.
He hasn’t much time to chat longer: John’s “Ask me” shirt invites a question from another festival goer.
“The festival has changed over the years, but it has always maintained the ability to attract really, really good people,” he adds. “And the community … if you still see this kind of support and response to a festival” — John gestures to the growing crowd of volunteers, spectator and paddlers — “even when the weather is lousy — and there have been some ‘lousy weather’ years — then you know you have a winner!”
Just down the way, a pink “comfort station” stands out against a white tent with a large label: Dragon’s Lair. Unlike the other tents, visitors need permission to enter this one. It not only has comfy couches and enticing food plates, but also a butler and a social director. The inhabitants of this tent, the top fundraisers for the second year in a row, are the RBC Queen Bees.
“We’re thinking of renaming the Dragon’s Lair the Bee Hive,” laughs team captain Patti Perry, Branch Manager at RBC in Lakefield.
In the spirit of the day, there’s a fine line between laughter and tears. Like John, Patti has been involved in the Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival since it began 17 years ago.
“You’re going to make me cry,” she says when asked why she keeps at it year after year.
“It’s the feeling you get being part of this,” she explains. “It’s the great team we have, the fun we have raising money ahead of time, the support of RBC, and being here every year and paddling.”
Captain of the RBC Queen Bees for the past five years, Patti says it’s not always easy to fill the boat, but once the paddlers are signed up, the fun begins. She keeps an email chain active for the six weeks prior to the festival, linking 10 branches within the Kawartha Lakeshore RBC region. Members share photos, ideas, fundraising goals. The events this year included a paint night, bake sales, cake raffles, book sales, and candy-bag sales.
“To be honest, fundraising is not a challenge,” she says. This year, the RBC Queen Bees raised $14,076.30, about the same as last year.
Janice Ephgrave echoes her captain’s remarks.
“This festival is just so well run. Everything is on time, organized, and it’s just such a great day — even when the weather is crappy. Believe me,” she says, gesturing at this year’s sunshine, “we’ve paddled in some pretty crappy weather over the years.”
So what makes the annual festival so successful?
Organizers say it’s hard to tease out one factor. Is it the hundreds of volunteers, the paddlers who register year after year and inspire new ones to give dragon boating a try, or the committee members who do the lion’s share of the organizing in the months leading up to the event? Is it the Survivors Abreast organization that first dreamt the festival into being and continues to fuel it with passion and hard work?
If you ask sponsorship chair Sandi Shortt, she tells you the key is the sponsors — all 35-plus of them.
“We simply couldn’t do this without the sponsorship,” she says. “I am so thankful.”
While the platinum sponsor Kawartha Credit Union plays a key role, the gold (media) sponsors like kawarthaNOW raise awareness of the festival and encourage fundraising, while the silver and teak sponsors keep the wheels rolling by providing everything from a coffee cart and fresh water stations, to tents, signs, boats, food, and golf carts.
“It’s amazing how detailed the organization of this festival is,” Shortt adds. “To get something this well run, you have to have details.”
On average — and 2017 was no exception — about 3,000 people attend the Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival. By 11:30 on Saturday morning, most of them were somewhere on the festival grounds or on the water, the sounds of the paddlers panting and cheering and their drummers beating now drowned out by the spectators whooping and clapping, and the race organizers thanking sponsors and announcing teams.
As I write this, there are still more heats to run, finals to race, and a full afternoon ahead. But now, for a few minutes, there’s a pause, a breath in the day, a break from the water.
In a moment that embraces months of tireless organizing and myriad moments of uttered and unuttered support, the survivor paddlers join their four boats, wave pink carnations, remember those lost to cancer and, with the refrains of their signature song “Never Really Gone” blanketing the water and land alike, allow tears to overflow as the carnations are tossed onto the water.
And, with the flowers, far beyond a ceremonial nod to tradition, a breath of hope for the future is ignited, and the circle is renewed; the 2018 festival is just 364 days away.
As of the date of this story, Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival is at 86 per cent of its 2017 fundraising goal. You can still help the festival reach its goal by donating at ptbodragonboat.ca.
