More Than a Festival
Burlington’ s waterfront comes alive in August when Dragonheart Vermont hosts its annual Lake Champlain Dragonboat Festival, its biggest annual fundraiser. While much effort goes into festival planning, the group operates year-round as both a competitive team and as a training ground for dragon boat athletes.
Over these past twenty plus years, Dragonheart Vermont has grown into a member-based organization of 200 to 230 paddlers, roughly 25 percent of whom are breast cancer survivors. The rest are supporters— family members, friends, and people who simply love the sport. Anyone can join; you don’ t have to be a survivor, and you don’ t have to be a woman.“ We are open to everybody in every way,” says head coach Brett Haug.
For Vicky Drew, the organization’ s Festival Coordinator and a breast cancer survivor herself, Dragonheart has become something deeper than a sport.“ Dragonheart has become my new family,” she says.“ I have a group of 60 other survivors that I can call on if I were to be re-diagnosed.” That camaraderie shows up in concrete ways: when one member went through chemotherapy as a single woman without family nearby,“ there were five or six Dragonhearters there with her at every single treatment,” says Vicky.“ That is the essence of what Dragonheart is all about.”
Kyle Lewis, who joined as Executive Director in September 2024, was drawn to the role by personal connection as much as professional fit.“ I wanted a career change, and I was looking for a job that really took my love of customer service, sports, and helping people,” she shares.“ This also felt like a good fit because my sister-in-law had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I wanted to honor what she was going through. She’ s doing really well now. I have other close family members who have battled leukemia and lymphoma at young ages, so being able to give back to the cancer community strikes close to home. It doesn’ t feel like work because I know that I’ m doing something for the greater good.”
Origins of Dragon Boat Racing
According to the American Canoe Association, dragon boats have ancient Chinese origins dating back more than 2,000 years, with roots reaching even further to ancient Greece. Modern dragon boat racing became an international event in Hong Kong in 1976. Today’ s boats are made of fiberglass and carbon, a far cry from the teak hulls of their ancestors. They are often beautifully decorated with Chinese dragon heads and tails— though at Dragonheart Vermont, those ceremonial heads and tails are often reserved for race days and festivals, not everyday practice. The authentic Asian-style long boats are approximately 40 to 46 feet long and seat 22 people: 20 paddlers, 1 steersperson, and 1 drummer.
The sport is strongly tied to the legend of Qu Yuan, a poet and court official who drowned himself in 278 BCE to protest imperial corruption. Dragon boat racing is said to trace back to the villagers who rushed out in boats to try to save him, thrashing the water with paddles to keep fish at bay. Modern racing is anything but chaotic, however. It demands intense teamwork and stroke precision: paddlers sit in pairs, each with a single-bladed paddle, moving in unison to the rhythm of a drummer positioned at the bow.“ The movement of the boat depends upon being in sync, not just strength,” Vicky explains.“ Technique is key— the biggest thing is you’ ve just got to paddle together.”
Racers on Lake Champlain
There’ s also a specific and well-documented reason why dragon boating has become so closely associated with breast cancer survivors. A physician at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Don McKenzie, challenged the long-held medical advice that survivors should avoid strenuous upper-body activity after surgery. He put a group of survivors on a dragon boat and studied the results. What he found— that the sport not only improved health outcomes but created profound bonds among participants— launched an international movement.“ That’ s why we have a breast cancer division in dragon boating,” Vicky says.
The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival
The Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, sponsored this year by Community Bank on August 8 & 9, is Dragonheart Vermont’ s biggest fundraiser and its most public face, though the two are distinct: the festival is the event, while Dragonheart Vermont is the club that runs it. This year marks the festival’ s 20th anniversary. Planning begins roughly 15 months in advance and involves dozens of team leads and hundreds of volunteers.
The day draws two kinds of participants. Community teams make up the majority. They attend a practice weekend beforehand and then race, sometimes for the first time, against other community teams. Seeding is based on first-race times, so
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