During the festival, Burlington Boatyard was also able to speak with Dragonheart Vermont – a breast cancer survivor dragon boat team. 

The members of Dragonheart Vermont strive to promote breast cancer awareness in our community, to provide hope to other cancer survivors and their families to live each moment fully, and to support our own team members in a spirit of camaraderie and joy. When breast cancer survivors participate in dragon boating, they provide a face to the disease and the statistics. Breast cancer is what brought our team members together. Friendship is what keeps us together. Racing dragon boats is not our point. Our race is against breast cancer. In China, the dragon traditionally symbolizes a good omen. It is the heartfelt hope of Dragonheart Vermont that the dragon will protect us until the race against breast cancer brings an end to this disease at last.

Dragonheart Vermont has taken on the sport of dragon boating for our health and well being. After a diagnosis of breast cancer, survivors learn how to embrace life again. Dragon boating helps you feel alive. Just imagine how energizing it feels to be out on a boat on Lake Champlain with the mountains and setting sun as your backdrop. Now imagine sharing this experience with 20 other people who are with you in the boat. The fun of the sport is that it does not require great athletic ability. In dragon boating, no one team member shines. It is a true team sport. Timing is the key. The paddlers must work in perfect unison. Twenty paddles hitting the water at the same moment and propelling the boat forward is a thing of beauty. This synchronicity is health-giving and life-affirming.

If you are interested in joining the team – you may contact Linda Dyer at 802-434-4423, or email dragonheartvermont@gmavt.net

For more information:
Head to www.dragonheartvermont.org

It’s 7:30pm and the sky is clear after a brief shower that kept us under the tent for a while. Now we are about to transition into the events of the evening which include some live music and great food over at the beer and wine tent. The view is amazing now, without a cloud over the lake and the many different boats going by are making for some great pictures.

We are still going strong here at the BBY table, with the crowd growing as work lets out and the weekend kicks off. We just spoke with one of the maritime patrons that spent a good five minutes checking out the pictures in the Burlington Boatyard Anglers set in our Flickr album. Needless to say, they were very impressed by the great catches out there, and to be honest, it’s getting hard to keep from running down to the water and throwing out a line!

Well, thanks for checking back in with us, and we hope to put up another post or two before Day 1 is out.

- The Burlington Boatyard Crew