The Sydenham Challenge Dragon Boat Festival in Wallaceburg has been going strong since 2002. Brian Armitage, one of the event organizers and founders of the event, said the origin of the Dragon Boat festival hit close to home for him.
“When dragon boating became really popular in Canada, there was a doctor out in Vancouver. He was a doctor that worked with breast cancer and he recognized the values of upper body exercise for people who have gone through breast cancer, especially mastectomies,” Brian said.
“A good example is when you see the ladies wearing the sleeves, that’s because they have had a lot of their lymph nodes removed and so there is no fluid running to your extremities, so they want them to push their fluids up so they don’t swell. The exercise of dragon boating was the perfect exercise that got things moving. The exercise was very beneficial to upper body workouts for people with breast cancer.”
Brian said dragon boating had been introduced to Canada, but this is when it became popular.
“It lit like wildfire, it just went across the country,” he said. “So that’s why breast cancer teams are very supported and you find them throughout all of North America right now.”
Brian said around the same time, his employer – the United Way – had been in talks with a local industrial leader, who questioned why there was no Wallaceburg location for the United Way.
“The deal was put on by this company, Waltec Industries. We made an offer and it was put up or shut up. They would fund six months for us to establish an office in Wallaceburg. At the very same time, my wife was detected to have breast cancer and she had a very rare breast cancer. She had two different cancers, one on each breast. She was actually stage three.”
Brian said one thing about his employer, they have always been “it’s family first.
“If you need to be with family, you be with family. With Waltec Industries funding us for six months and me needing to be back in town, that marriage came together right in this very location,” he said.
Brian added one of his objectives with being in Wallaceburg was keeping and establishing the longevity of the office without using donor money to help pay for it.
“It didn’t take long to show that it was a needed,” he said. “The UAW running the gold tournament, all of those funds paid for this office and help from a few other areas.”
Another part of his objective was to organize an annual event of some kind.
“With my wife’s breast cancer I was introduced to dragon boating. I thought I’m going to organize a Dragon Boat Festival. The Chamber had previously looked at having one years ago and they had the Stratford Group down measuring the river to see if it was doable. I don’t know what happened. It fell aside. I was aware of that, so I went in and I grabbed their notes. The creation of the Dragon Boat Festival began.”
Brian said breast cancer became very near and dear to him in support of his wife and her endeavours.
“We now have met a lot of other people with breast cancer and they have now become friends. It was imperative to me that it wasn’t just an United Way event, but it also supports the Breast Buddies floating support team.
Brian said although they don’t give to breast cancer directly, the Breast Buddies through their funding, through us, purchase chairs and other things for the areas that deal with breast cancer to make it more comfortable for more people. It just became a natural fit. It was all about my wife getting breast cancer, all about my employer allowing me to be in Wallaceburg. All about establishing longevity for this office so there are many different things that started this.”
Brian said the original first year was set for 2001, a fall event.
“And then 911 happened and our first year we were using tin tubs. Instead of the boats we are using now, they were steel. It only held ten people, they still use them for practice in Chatham. 10 people and it took twice as much strength to move. It was like going ten pin bowling and using a five pin ball. We only had six teams and four of those teams were volunteer firefighters and then 911 happened. Out of respect for 911 and the firefighters, we cancelled and it allowed us to think that we don’t want a fall event, we wanted to kick off the summer.”
Brian added: “2002 was really our first year. We call 2001 our first year because it was a reality and it was out of respect. It’s not that it failed, it was just respect.”
The 2015 event will be held on Saturday, June 6 from 8 a.m. to approximately 4 p.m. at the Wallaceburg Legion Br. 18. There will also be a host of kid’s events taking place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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This article is sponsored content and is a part of our “Keep It Local Business Spotlight” feature. Contact Dana Haggith for more information – 519-784-4610 or dana@sydenhamcurrent.ca.
Great story, thanks for the history of a fabulous event.