Cancer therapy: 22 teams to compete as Dragon boat races return to Beaufort Waterfront Park
Dragon boat races return to Beaufort’s Waterfront Park on Saturday after a two-year absence because of the pandemic.
Here’s what you need to know if you go:
▪ 22 “Dragons” will be competing. Teams are from Beaufort, Charleston, Florida, North Carolina Georgia.
▪ The first race/heat will begin at 8:30 a.m. There will be three heats. The event continues to around 4 p.m.
▪ The race distance is 200 meters.
▪ Each boat has around 20 paddlers and a drummer.
▪ DragonBoat Beaufort, a non-profit organization focused on an active wellness program for cancer survivors, sponsors the races to raise money for cancer patients in Beaufort County. The Beaufort club was inspired by the award-winning documentary, “Awaken the Dragon,” screened at the Beaufort International Film Festival in 2012. It told the story of a group of cancer survivors that made up a dragon boat team from Charleston.
▪ Dragonboat racing is a cancer therapy, according to DragonBoat Beaufort.
“All people who live with cancer, are survivors or support those who have had cancer can appreciate the sense of team synchronicity in a dragon boat,” said Don McKenzie, a sports medicine specialist at the University of British Columbia, who started a dragon boat team for women with a history of breast cancer.
This story was originally published June 23, 2022 at 12:41 PM.
