2011 Citizens Bank Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival raises $236,900

On Sunday, August 7, 74 Vermont community teams and 13 breast cancer survivor teams from the eastern U.S. and Canada competed for a day of fun and fundraising at Burlington’s Waterfront Park. Thanks to the thousands of participants, donors, sponsors, and volunteers, this year the Citizens Bank Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival raised over $236,900 to benefit Survivorship NOW and Dragonheart Vermont. Now in its 6th year the festival has raised nearly ¾ of a million dollars for local cancer-related charities. The 2011 pledge partner is Survivorship NOW, Dragonheart Vermont’s new Network on Wellness initiative. Survivorship NOW will provide on-going exercise, support and wellness programs for community cancer survivors to help them live life to the fullest after their clinical cancer treatment ends.
Executive Director Linda Dyer: "It is so exciting to learn how much we raised for Survivorship NOW, our initiative to provide wellness programs for cancer survivors in our area. What a team effort it is to raise this kind of money. It happened because of the enthusiasm and efforts of so many people in our community. Our Dragonheart team feels so gratified to our sponsors, racers, volunteers, and donors that gave so much to bring about this success."
This year’s Citizens Bank Champ Cup was won by The Cross Fit Cavemen of Champlain Valley Cross Fit Health Club, with a time of 1:06:36 edging out Team Confluence, another Cross Fit team from central Vermont, by 2/10th of a second. Connor Crew, the 2010 Champ Cup winner placed third.
Dragonheart Vermont is a breast cancer survivor and supporter dragon boat organization based in Burlington. The organization strives to provide support, hope, fitness, and fun to breast cancer survivors and supporters in our community. Past festival pledge partners have included Camp Ta-Kum-Ta, the Cancer Patient Support Program Emergency Fund, the Vermont Respite House, and the Radiation Oncology Department at Fletcher Allen Health Care.
For more information, visit www.ridethedragon.org. Photos by Karen Wark, Bruce Morrissey and Chris Ryan.