Chestmates - Notes from the Dragonboat
The 2011 paddling season saw five new members join, bringing the number of survivors participating on our team to forty members. We had one person retire and sadly we lost two members, Cathy Depew and Debra Schutt. They now paddle and drum in our hearts and memories. We have a Chestmate memorial plaque which honors our fellow paddlers who have passed on as well as having name plates on the drummer's seat on the boat.
We increased our training sessions this year. We had five on dry land at the Invista Centre with Brant Stachel returning to help us work on our core and endurance. Brendon Morden and Erica O'Keefe returned to the KMCSC where we had six weeks of paddling and aquafit.
We launched the boat at our new site Collins Bay Marina at the end of April. We enjoyed paddling there and the cleanliness of the docks and the whole area was welcomed by the team. We had our purple Chestmate trailer on site to store our equipment. Our hour long practices were held Monday and Thursday evening with coaches Ayana Hutchinson, Elaine Agarand and Sarah Emery.
We took part in four festivals this year and improved our times and standings from the first to the last. Port Perry was the first one on June 18th and was a great venue for the newbies first race. We came home with two silver medals. Kingston was next on July 23rd. The Breast Cancer Survivor Race was a photo finish with one and a half seconds between the first and last boat. The Chestmates 10th Anniversary celebration was kicked off by Suzanne Bodner and Dianne Johnston with a presentation.
We attended Wellington on August 13th and came away with another plaque for second place. In order to get in that race we cut six seconds off our best time of the day. Needless to say the whole team was quite proud of this. Again this year, Carleton Place was our last festival. Sept. 10th was a beautiful sunny day and our times improved from our first festival as well as last years. We also cut six seconds off our time again.
September 18th turned out to be a beautiful day for our fun paddle at Rotary Park. We took the boat out of the water on September 29th and will be cleaning it after Thanksgiving at DC Marine where it will be stored once again and some work will be done on it to prepare it for next season.
The next international dragon boat festival will be in 2014 and we're hoping it will be in Europe. With the approval of BCAK, we've already started fund raising for this.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have enabled Chestmates to enjoy another successful and rewarding season of paddling. A sincere thank you to BCAK for continuing to support Chestmates as one of their many programs, as well as their ongoing financial support. We also wouldn't be able to do what we do without the generous commitment of time, hard work and support given to us by volunteer coaches, family members and friends.
Lynne Funnell
Chestmates Captain