PARAP MARKET - DARWIN

Our stall at Parap Markets continues to be very well frequented and the Dry Season is well and truly here - which makes it so very pleasant down there!

Today I was working the first shift and had the pleasure of meeting visitors from Launceston & Sydney Cancer Councils - both knew all about Dragons Abreast and we had a lovely little chat.

The Sydney visitors are planning to be at Darling Harbour to cheer on the crews at the regatta on the 19th October - amazing how the word is spreading!

I also had the pleasure of catching up with Merilyn Newnham from Connecting Images on Monday evening - we enjoyed a lovely walk along the Nightcliff foreshore as we caught up with each others news. It was Connecting Images who organised all the fabulous PR for us during Caloundra - visit them at www.connectingimages.com.au and see what else they do!

Michelle

OPEN GARDEN - THANK YOU PAULINE & BRIAN!

I have had the pleasure of spending most of the day down at Brian and Pauline Deslandes (former coordinator of Dragons Abreast NT) property as they opened their garden this weekend.

It is a fabulous sanctuary, away from the hustle and bustle, set on 5 acres that has been loving coaxed in a wonderful 'retired' spot!

This was of course no ordinary Open Garden- it was done in true Dragons Abreast style with lots of pink people and chairs! Members catered superbly and did a roaring trade with the Devonshire teas, sausage sandwiches, satays, drinks etc. Trade was very brisk over the two days and I am sure Dragons Abreast NT will be blogging more details and photo's. It was wonderful and all proceeds are being donated to Dragons Abreast Australia - which is sensational!

Thank you so much Brian & Pauline plus all helpers - what a great job - and what fantastic surrounding!
Cheers
Michelle

Intrepidette

Some of the Ballarat members receiving a cheque from the Scrapbooking Shop. We learned of a survivor who had made Scrapbooking equipment as her business and donated a percentage of sales to Breast Cancer. The owners of the Imagination Factory ran workshops with the articles of this range and donated the fees to our group. Thank you Tracey, we are all enthusiastic and want to learn Scrapbooking now.

Dragons Abreast ACT Corporate Challenge Regatta

Things are hotting up for the ACT Corporate Challenge, to be held on Lake Burley Griffin on 25 October 2008, organised by Coordinator Marion Blake and a small committee, aided of course by the whole of the Dragons Abreast ACT team, and the Canberra Dragon Boat Association. This regatta has been held annually since 2002, with only six teams at that time, but now we have to limit numbers to 36 teams. Crews are clamouring to be part of it!

There are heaps of photos on the web, where you can see how much fun the participants have, and how they love to dress to impress with touches of pink! In past years we have really made a splash on the lake in front of some of the nation's famous icons, like Parliament House, the War Memorial, the Captain Cook fountain and the Carillion. At no other time has so much pink been spotted on Lake Burley Griffin!

More information is available at http://www.dragonsabreast.com.au/ACT/2008_regatta/index.htm. You can put in an expression of interest at http://www.dragonsabreast.com.au/ACT/2008_regatta/Registration.htm and payment for the team must be completed by 5 September.

OCTOBER REGATTA - COMPOSITE TEAMS

Several individuals have been enquiring about composite teams at the Inaugural Dragons Abreast Australia Corporate & Community Regatta to be held on the 19th October 2008 in Darling Harbour. I am delighted to be able to advise that composite teams will be available and anyone interested in being part of one should get in touch with me direct as it is a first come first served basis.

There is also scope for you to get together a bunch of non paddling colleagues/family/friends and put in your own team - it is massive fun!!! For more details please email regatta@dragonsabreast.com.au - a number of corporate teams are already hot on the fundraising trail and this is fantastic to see.

Expect the website area for this regatta to go live any day now - so everyone can watch the progress.
Michelle

BACK IN DARWIN

I am now back home again - catching up on the backlog of emails and post that has arrived whilst I have been away. Kathy - who has been a fantastic volunteer is now on a well deserved break till mid July but Rowena is back on deck each Monday.

Today Bonny (pictured), who is off work for a week, has come in to help with the updating of the coordinator profiles for the next edition of the Dragons Abreast Australia manual. Thanks to everyone who has met the deadlines! Some of you are still lagging behind and this means that you won't make the manual as it is only compiled once a year.

It is wonderful having the help of dedicated volunteers who put in so many hours each week - we'd be lost without them all, and I know that those of you in Qld are missing your Regional Rep (Jo Parry) who is away on business in India.

Michelle

No WATER? NO PROBLEM!! :)

The conference has been a fabulous experience in so many many ways - please read the main Dragons Abreast Australia blog for the more general details. This section is where I am writing more for our coordinators and paddlers rather than the world - but of course anyone can read :)

I want to tell you about the dragon boat session that was planned for the World Conference. The weather was very inclement to say the least - so Chemo Savvy were very inventive. They moved the whole session indoors!
Lexie Warren with her 'medal'

The session was supposed to give participants a feeling of what it was like to be at a dragon boat regatta. Those girls pulled it off so well!

First of all our bus monitors took us up to the 3rd floor of the conference centre - a huge gymnasium like room. We were met by Cathy Prusak as we got off the bus with 'welcome to Lake Shirley'. We sat down with our bagged lunch and ate the picnic as we introduced ourselves to each other.

The opening ceremony began with the introductions and speeches, then the traditional dotting of the eyes - I was one of the officials - and I felt very honoured to be asked. One of the team members was fabulous on the traditional drum - everyone watched in awe and appreciation of this traditional element of dragon boat racing cutural celebration.

Open ceremony over - we were divided into our 'teams' - 3 teams. Mentors from Chemo Savvy or Waves of Hope (from Brandon, Manitoba) were allocated to all paddlers. I was in a team which had Sylvie as our coach and sweep. Those of you who were in New Zealnd may remember Sylvie? My partner was a lady called Virginia who had never paddled before. We received quick instruction and a 'practice' session in our 'boat' - we were BLUE BOAT - just to make sure we all understood the safety procedures and could paddle in time. Back to the old days of Darwin when it was plastic chairs and not a boat in sigh!

Practice over we assembled for the 'warm up' - a great session led by the Chemo Savvy personal trainer who put us all through our paces. Warm up complete and we stood around talking, till over the loud speaker came the call to Marshalling. We lined up in the marshalling area -wised each other good luck, made sure we had our drummer and then it was down to the loading dock.

Boat marshallers helped us into our seats and handed us each a lovely pink rose for the 'rose ceremony' that would be held immediately after the race. Buddies checked each others life jackets to make sure all secure (water is cold here!) and then we 'paddled' under Sylvie's instructions to the start line.

As we were lined up there was a bit of back paddling and drawing to line up the boats. The starter then called "Paddles Up, Attention, Go' and off we went to the tune of the Hawaii 5 O theme song - what a hoot!! We paddled as fast as we could, keeping great time as the drummer urged us on, and the crowds lining the bank cheered for us all.

Race over, we maintained positions on the water and the Rose Ceremony began - with the compere explaining what it was about, and then the silence as the song "The River" was played. Very emotional. At the end of the song we tossed our roses into the water. Sylvie called Paddles Up, and off we paddled back to shore. Everyone feeling very exhilerated and exhausted after their race!

As we approached the loading docks, Sylvie called out to stop the boat and had the right side 'hold onto the dock'. We came into shore and unloaded under the instructions of the boat marshalling. As we left the loading dock we were greeted by a paddle guard of honour that had been formed by our Chemo Savvy sisters - as we emerged from the arch each paddler received a 'medal' made by the local girl guides for all of us - it is a very precious medal!

This medal is particularly precious. In my book ranks right up there with the first medal I received in Vancouver in 2000 when Sandy Smith explained that all particpants would receive a 'gold medal' on the eve of Alcan because we were all winners - and this is not about competition. Indeed these medals are, in my book, more precious than any of the Golds that I have ever won because they embody all that Dragons Abreast Australia stands for and celebrate the fact that we are indeed the lucky ones.

Chemo Savvy did a wondeful job and are to be congratulated on pulling off such a great 'dragon boat festival' - more than anything they have truly displayed the dragon spirit that works through the breast cancer survivor teams.

It was a challenge that they rose to magnificently and this was only possible because they thought out of the box and got back to the roots of where we all began in those far past days, but we must all of us, never forget the past because it does shape the future.

Lexie Warren and I were the only two Aussies. We handed out the little clip on koala's which went down a treat with all the novice paddlers - who were unfamiliar with the practice of exchanging after races (as we knew they would be - but we expected nothing in return and wanted them to have that little extra touch)

I have now 'paddled' with Chemo Savvy on Lake Shirley in Winnipeg - which I think is marvellous, as it is 10 years since I first heard of Chemo Savvy - so to share this 'paddle' on their home ground was another fantastic and special experience that I will always remember.

Thanks Chemo Savvy for our friendship over the last 10 years! Thanks also Waves of Hope from Brandon, Manitoba for being there - I hope you all enjoy your copies of A Dragon's Tale!
Paddles Up!
Michelle

MORE INCREDIBLE WOMEN!

Today I had the great pleasure of meeting and spending some time chatting with Courtney who was one of the Amazon Heart adverturers who went to Sri Lanka with Lyn and Amelia from Dragons Abreast ACT - and also Triple M (now of Encore fame) - see photo.

Courtney send her best to all the Amazon Heart girls that she knows in Australia.

The theme of this confernce is It's a Small World - and it really is! There are some truly amazing women out there and it is such a pleasure to be in their company and meet new people who are united in the common goal of ensuring that breast cancer becomes a thing of the past. It might be a hard slog, but together we can definitely do our fair share towards finding the cure.

I have also had a very good response to my workshop with several people approaching me individually in the last couple of days for follow up talks.

A Dragon's Tale has been very well received and copies are winging their way to Bahamas, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malaysia, India and of course across Canada and USA.
Michelle

PRAGUE - DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

If anyone is going to Prague I am pleased to advise that they now have a breast cancer survivor dragon boat team who have just made contact with me. They are paddling in the:

11th Prague Dragon Boat Festival (Czech Republic)

WHEN: Saturday, June 21 2008
9:00 am
WHERE: Fun Island Cisarska louka Prague 5
The map: Show me the active map (mapy.cz)

If anyone is there at that time please do contact them and say 'hello' from Australia!
Cheers
Michelle

WINNIPEG - WORLD CONFERENCE UPDATE

I am posting on the main blog as well as on this coordinators blog - so if you want to read what has been happening please check both.

For the newer members of Dragons Abreast this is probably a good moment to explain that although I am widely known as a dragon boater - my background is in the advocate world - in those early days of NT Breast Cancer Voice. Dragons Abreast has taken a great deal of my time and attention over the last 10 years but I am first and foremost an advocate and through Dragons Abreast we have the opportunity to give that very public face to breast cancer statistics and keep the awareness high.

If there are new members of Dragons Abreast that are interesting in moving into the world of advocacy - it is certainly possible to combine the two spheres. Many of our members wear many hats.
If you are keen to learn more about advocacy there is an excellent training course run by the Breast Cancer Network Australia that I recommend.
Michelle

AN AMAZING FILM - RIVER OF LIFE

Last night I saw an amazing film - River of Life - a paddle down the Yukon - over 700 kms done in about 56 hours by an incredible bunch of 8 breast cancer survivors. Makes the Ord look like a picnic! I have bought a copy of the DVD and we'll be showing it at EcoPoint Myall Shores REsort for those who are interested - quite amazing! The photo here is of two of the paddlers - they have done this trip for 8 years and are incredible. Took the photo as I was buying the DVD.

Lots of fascinating people here!
More later
Michelle

A PINK NEWSPAPER!

The Winnipeg newspaper today is pink - the whole paper! and it is pretty much dedicated to the World Conference which is fantastic!

There is so much awareness here -and I am sure it will be an excellent conference. Very much looking forward to all the sessions.
Michelle

VANCOUVER

I was fortunate to have spent yesterday evening in Vancouver on my way to Winnipeg. Being there brought back so many wonderful memories of the time we all shared there in 2005 at the wonderful festival hosted by Abreast In A Boat.

If you have not done so recently - go onto the photo section http://picasaweb.google.com/DragonsAbreast/Vancouver2005 and check out the images of our time there - it was incredible and we shared some great memories. Sadly there are many individuals who have lost their battle with breast cancer since then - but their smiling faces in those photos keep their memories in our hearts and minds.

Michelle