VERY TIGHT RACE FINISHES REPORTED IN 2011 !

Breast Strokers and Dragon Divas Go head-to-head
and register The smallest race finish gap > 0.083 sec

>> Full-size photo finishes

>> 2011 Photo galleries

DAUNTLESS DRAGONBOATERS DEFY DELUGE at ESCA's 5TH PADDLEforCANCER FESTIVAL !

Drips, drizzles and downpours dampened not one spirit at the 5th annual PADDLEforCANCER Dragonboat Festival held on September 4, 2011 at l'Abbaye, Lac de Joux. 

Competitors arrived pumped, with smiles, costumes, and energy enough to light up the sky.

An armada of 150 volunteers gave nearly 3,000 hours of work during the week-end to keep all the activities of the day running smoothly.  They included 27 willing and energetic students from Webster University, Rob Ireland’s international group of boat handlers and race managers, and ESCA volunteers, many with their children and spouses pressed into service.  As in previous years, Felix Meier with his professional team from dragonboatevents.ch GmbH gave far more than the technical support essential to the races.

Every year Festival volunteer Karen Jones runs the used-book stall, donating her proceeds to teams Dons & Divas, Dragon Divas, and to ESCA.  This year she had the special challenge of keeping the books under plastic while allowing people to browse.

Karen also took on the additional task of organizing the Festival’s first balloon race.  At the end of the day 162 helium-filled balloons in a rainbow of colors representing different cancers were released, each one belonging to a ticket holder who had paid 5CHF to enter the contest.  The winners will be the “holder” of the balloon that travels farthest from the Lac de Joux and the person who finds it.

The success of the Festival depends in large measure on our stalwart corporate sponsors.  This year Merck Serano sponsored its own two teams and also helped fund two open entries representing cancer survivors, the Breast Strokers and a new group, Hop, Hop, Hope Enfance et Cancer.  In addition, Karen’s balloons wouldn’t have left the ground without the helium they donated.

Twelve new teams joined the race, including the Clubhouse Pub, which donated all the proceeds of its drink sales to ESCA.  Members of another new team, Beau Rivage (Hotel), spread sunshine with their attire of terry robes and sunglasses.

Radio Frontier, PaddleforCancer’s first media sponsor, not only entered a team but also loaned Mark Butcher to provide commentary throughout the day.

Discussing the difficult call to shorten the race by one heat, Festival coordinator Patsy Allen explained, “Cancelling the third heat was a hard decision to take, but as the weather continued to get worse we had to consider the best interest of all the participants, their families and the volunteers.  But,” she added, “it was amazing that people turned out in such adverse weather conditions with smiles on their faces, willing to show support for people affected by cancer.”

Besides those people, other winners of the day were:  Village Camps (again!) in the corporate category, Dragon Slayers in the open group and Dragon Slayerettes in the all-female races.  The Fundraisers Challenge Cup, which to date has collected 20,000 CHF, was won by corporate team Eaton and the all-female team Birds of Paradise.

It’s not too soon to mark the calendar for next year, especially since 2012 is a leap year. 

The date to circle is Sunday, September 2nd, 2012. 

Until then ESCA raises its paddles in gratitude and this year, in awe as well, to every single participant of the 2011 Festival!