Dragon boat races aid breast cancer survivors
Organizers of the inaugural Pittsburgh Dragon Boat Festival were beating the drum Sunday for an activity that can encourage breast cancer survivors to become active.
The races involving boats paddled to the beat of drummers took place on the lake by the boathouse at North Park and drew hundreds of spectators. The event was organized by Darlene Goldfinch and her husband, Phillip, to raise money for their new breast cancer survivor dragon boat team, Hearts of Steel.
“We want to raise money to provide more equipment for breast cancer survivors to get them up and active,” Ms. Goldfinch said. “Dragon boating in really good physically and mentally and it has been proven to help with lymphedema,” she added.
It is a condition that sometimes effects people who have been treated for breast cancer.
They teamed up with the Organization of Chinese Americans thanks to president Kai Lin and vice president Marien Lien, who is on the Pittsburgh Paddlefish Team. The partnership along with the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania helped to create a culturally infused festival.
Dragon boating is an ancient sport that goes back 2,500 years in China, so Chinese food, dance and costumes were everywhere.
“You can feel the history listening to the rhythmic beating of the drummers on the boats,” one bystander said.
That rhythm helps to pace the paddlers and creates an intense atmosphere for racers.
Seventeen teams took to the water, competing for the joy of it and a trophy, but don’t think of this as rowing.
“It’s paddling. It’s completely different than rowing,” Ms. Goldfinch insisted.
There were three categories of racers for the afternoon competitions: the community racers, youth racers and breast cancer survivor racers. Hope Chest sent two boats full of breast cancer survivor paddlers via bus from Buffalo, N.Y., to participate.
“We have two teams competing today — Nina’s Hope and Nina’s Dream,” said Anne Kist, the Hope Chest leader.
“We were the second team ever founded in the United States,” Ms. Kist, a 17-year veteran of the sport, said proudly.
Those two Nina teams raced a pickup team of breast cancer survivors from Pittsburgh’s Hearts of Steel group called Pink Power. It was in the second heat of race 12 when the pink pickup team edged out the Buffalo teams to win. What is more remarkable and inspiring is that the average age of paddlers at Hearts of Steel is 60 to 63 years old. Perhaps it was home-field advantage or that Ms. Goldfinch was steering the winning boat in the 200-meter race.
The overall winner in the community division was Save the Knockers. The youth division winner was the Seneca Valley Hockey Team. Paddling for Kathie won the overall breast cancer survivors division.
“I have been dragon boating for 11 years,” said Ms. Goldfinch, who actually met her husband through the sport.
She recently returned from racing in Florence, Italy.
“It was all breast cancer survivors — like 4,000. It was great,” she recalled.
That is the kind of event the organizers are hoping to eventually develop in Pittsburgh.
Amid the racing Sunday, plenty of other activities kept spectators occupied, such as The Lion Dance by Win-Win Kung Fu, Pittsburgh Xiaobo Waist Drum Dance/Tai Chi Group and group meditation instruction by Sahaja Meditation.