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All-women team of FDNY enters Dragon Boat
THE FLEET of colorful and beastly boats that took to the water in Queens on Saturday for the 25th anniversary Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival included a crew of FDNY women who were paddling for the big prize.
For the first time an all-women’s team representing the FDNY was entered in the race.
“In our job, it’s all male,” said Giannella Robalino, 29, an EMT and a co-captain of the “Ice” team. “This sport is extreme. To have an all-female team coming from the type of job that we have, it’s an accomplishment.”
More than 200 teams were slated to go head-to-head in the two-day event at Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The competition, co-sponsored by the Daily News, drew thousands to the park and featured live music, food vendors and dance performances.
But the main draw was the dragon boats. The 40-foot teakwood skiffs, adorned with fiberglass dragon heads on the bow and tails on the stern, glided across the water with the help of up to 18 paddlers, a navigator and a drummer.
Teams presented a cross section of New Yorkers, including co-workers from corporations, hospitals and city agencies.
Lucy Lin, 22, team captain with a crew representing New York-Presbyterian Hospital, said the annual event has drawn her teammates closer together with each passing stroke. “We want to push each other,” she said. “Everyone on the seat matters and you get to be in the sun.”
The FDNY team, which includes firefighters, paramedics, EMS workers and others who work in the department, has three crews: the all-men’s crew called “Fire,” the co-ed crew titled “Steam” and the all-women’s crew named “Ice.”
Nadia Isles, 32, said her experiences as an EMT over the past three years helped ready her for the weekend’s races. “With
work, you don’t know what you’re getting,” she said. “You’ll get a job and you don’t know what you’re walking into. Like work, I’m open to new things. I’m into teamwork. Everybody here is like a family.”
The traditional boat races date back to the third century B.C., when poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in protest of the Chinese emperor and his policies, setting off a frantic boat race among locals to save him. The fishermen were too late, so they furiously beat the water with their paddles and threw in rice dumplings, wrapped in silk, to keep Qu Yuan’s body from being eaten by fish, according to legend.