Survivorship dragonboat team members
In recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, The Herald spoke with two members of the Survivorship dragonboat team. Maureen Lutz of Summerland, a retired nurse who is now an orchardist and grape grower, s one of six founding members still with the team, now in its 17th year. Donna Walker from Penticton is now in her 10th year with the team. She’s a retired fraud investigator for a major bank and her diverse working career included five years in the navy.
Survivorship is preparing to compete next summer in the world breast cancer championships, held once every four years, in Florence, Italy.
HERALD: How did you become involved with Survivorship?
LUTZ: A lady who used to canvass for cancer who I knew through the nursing community... we were talking and she mentioned there was an information meeting at the Barking Parrot. I didn’t have a clue but it sounded interesting, whatever it may be. I showed up and like everyone else — except one person, Cathy Laurer — we didn’t know what we were doing. Cathy had heard there was a team in Kelowna and it would be nice to have one in the South Okanagan.
WALKER: I noticed an article in the newspaper about Survivorship and I knew right then that I wanted to join that team. My husband had just passed away and I had moved back home. I walked down on the beach and saw them (Survivorship) bringing the boat up on the beach from one of their training sessions and I went up to them and said, “I want to join your team.”
HERALD: Were you active in sports during your youth?
LUTZ: Good heavens, no. I went to a Catholic school run by the nuns and we didn’t have money for sports, so when my Protestant friends were playing basketball we dressed up in cute costumes and did interpretive dance. I did some skiing and my husband introduced me to curling. To think in my 40s to all of a sudden discover that I like being competitive and I like to win. As our coach Don Mulhall often says, “You don’t dragonboat to stay in shape, you stay in shape to dragonboat.”
WALKER: I was a competitive swimmer, but getting healthy and strong later in life has been really important to me. We are proof that exercise increases our quality of life.
HERALD: Is swimming ability mandatory for dragonboating?
LUTZ: Not at all, in fact we have some members who were originally scared of the water.
WALKER: Life jackets are always mandatory.
HERALD: How has Survivorship evolved over the past 17 years?
LUTZ: It’s Cathy Lauer who started the team and was instrumental in taking the team to where it is today. We’ve always had a vision of what we wanted to be, but it has become much clearer over the years. Right away our mandate is to show women there is life after breast cancer. At our very first practice, our coach (Mulhall) sat us on the seawall and gave us a paddle before we even saw a boat. Most of us were holding it upside down and backwards. We now have our organization and our committees, fundraising, the practice, festivals, different entities, it has all evolved. We started by doing bake sales and we’re now a registered charitable organizaiton. We are all literally in the same boat.
WALKER: I remember one person who came over to my house and she had wanted to join Survivorship and she was shy and quiet. Looking at her now, she’s one of the most outspoken members of our team. We have a great coach — the best — and we’re very fortunate to have incredible support from the Penticton Lakeside Resort.
HERALD: When were you diagnosed with breast cancer and how did you react?
LUTZ: About 19 years ago. This was a very slow process over an 18-month period. I had three or four lumpectomies, each one being suspicious. “We’re going to go in and take out more tissue.” By the time you’re on the fourth one, I’m small to begin with, it was “just take it out.” I was over the shock.
LUTZ: I was very fortunate. I was diagnosed very early and I had radiation and I’ve been good so far. Touch wood.
HERALD: What’s been the highlight of your dragonboating career?
WALKER: Besides the improving physical quality of my life, it’s been the bonding with my sisterhood of dragonboat. Because we do have a common core, and although we’re all different personalities, we all pretty well get along and support each other. LUTZ: Which takes work. WALKER: This is a team that pretty well all likes each other and it doesn’t get any better than that.
LUTZ: She took my words. It’s about camaraderie and friendship. We do have some A-type personalities and we have our ups and downs, but we work it out.
WALKER: Everyone brings a different talent into the boat and is respected for that talent and we appreciate everyone’s talents.
HERALD: Is joining Survivorship a huge time commitment? Your team seems to be everywhere.
LUTZ: Allowances are made for members with children and those who are still working. We don’t want there to be obstacles to joining our team. As we started to win more often, some people said that they found us to be intimidating. That’s the furthest thing. We welcome new people who would like to join us, we are willing to bring new people on board, mentor them and make them feel welcome.
HERALD: With this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, what’s the most important message you can give to women?
LUTZ: Our strongest message is: get a mammogram. When we have the breast cancer race at nearly every festival now, usually at the noon hour, all of the other teams form an arch with their paddles and the breast cancer survivors go through the arch. Everyone high fives you and it’s nice to see young women chanting, “check those breasts.”
WALKER: Our mandate is for breast cancer awareness and we take any opportunity to inform the community and are willing to give talks to any group or organization.