[Guest]

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

 

Dragon Boat Canada


IDBF


Canoe Kayak Canada

191 Guests, 0 Users

[puppy]

Once again everyone, THANK YOU...$63,000+ dollars raised for the children ...TD Lightning, your group is amazing!!! 

Race Face (Anna Wu) and Elephant & Castle (Teresa Chan)...thank you to your group for volunteering, eventhough you couldn't enter your entire group for the races this year. In addition, thank you for your generous donation of over $600+. FCRCC Group, Phat Phish (Bernie, Pregant wife Jo-Ann and gang) & all you other "seasoned" paddlers from the creek, same goes for your group...THANK YOU, for your time, mentoring and volunteer work.

To the Starbuck Waverunners (Amy Tsze), thank you for the WONDERFUL LIFE SAVING coffee, that your company donated. 

To the Victoria Team who came all the way out here for this, the Dog Paddlers...amazing job and thank you too.

Dan, Jennifer, Birgit, Bruce, Suzie, and the remaining PFK committee...A HUGE THANK YOU, for not only raising money for such a great cause, but giving us another great event. I personally know how much time you scarficed, to make this event a huge success.

For those paddlers who were there, let's provide some feedback about this weekend's racing @ Paddle for Kids Event...

IE: Did you like the race format?
     How was the mini-Olympic games?
     Food, did you like your lunches?
     Prizes, did you like the awards?
     Volunteers, where the helpful and cheerful?
   
    But here's the biggest question, how do we get more money for the Children's Hospital, but keep the overall cost   down?


Please provide constructive feedback.....so that we can improve for you.


Thanks

Puppy

[Kibble]

Overall, a great day of fun racing & a phenomenal fundraiser for Children's Hospital.  With all the racing we do throughout the year, it's great that paddlers are able to volunteer their time & effort to give something back to our community (while promoting the sport at the same time!).  Kudos to all the volunteers & to the PFK Committee - for all of us (myself included) I think it was great to be able to work together with paddlers from various different teams when we're usually on the water competing against one another. 

Thank YOU Kerry -- I know you were running around alot trying to help out as many teams as possible.

Race format was great -- I liked the fact that scheduled races & Olympic games were posted at every tent and they were clearly announcing teams scheduled for events throughout the day.  The small scale of this event made this very possible. 

Food was decent enough -- I wasn't expecting anything too fancy.  Maybe consider using food vouchers so that paddlers/volunteers can pick up their lunches when they want to/have time to eat.  Those wraps don't taste that good after sitting in the sun for awhile.  Coffee ran out part-way through the morning...but these things happen, and we got the coffee back later.

Prizes were a good reward as always -- I like how each team was announced & recognized for something unique -- even if it was the biggest collision on the water...     (Did we crack that Gemini??!  )

I don't think there's much to change to make this a better event except to get more teams to participate & bring in more $$!   

[coach]

One of the reasons that I've been volunteering is that it introduces people to dragon boating.

Apparently this year there were about 400 non-dragonboaters participating so in my opinion that's very successful. I imagine that we'll be seeing some of them joining teams or forming teams next year.

[BernMan]

Thank you puppy for the nice words. All teams that I have been involved with for the past 15 years look to get involved in community related events such as PFK. You know that a lot of the volunteers from different dragon boat teams/different paddling clubs choose to help run/get involved in this event because we are all great ambassadors of the sport. We enjoy being around people who want to try new things such as dragonboating and teach them as much as we can in very little time. That in itself is a challenge to those of us who do volunteer coaching. Trying to get something across and hope it sticks! And hopefully they will enjoy it enough to come out and join on a team and do it on a permanent basis. That is the ultimate compliment to all of us who enjoy this great team building sporting event. And why not turn that into something worth while to benefit a worthy cause such as the BC Children's hospital? We all know someone either a family member or a very close friend who have had to go into BC Children's hospital because of a sickness or medical attention and if it weren't for the good people who work there who knows what would have happened. Those of us with kids hope we never have to go to BC Children's but at least you know that if you should have a need they will take good care of your little ones. This is at least my reason for having been involved in PFK for 7 of the last 8 years since its existence. There are always keen people in doing something new and there are always people like all the volunteers who will enjoy showing new things to these people. Its a win win situation. Congrats to all for a successful new high total. Lets work on doing better at next year's event and perhaps try for a 6 digit total? That would be just awesome but definitely doable! PADDLES UP! TAKE IT AWAY!

[Sundragon]

I'd like to add my appreciation for a well-run and fun event.    I was with Paddling with Pride, a group of women most of whom were paddling in a dragon boat for the very first time that day. Andrea Dillon was our coach for the day with able assistance from Dave (sorry, I don't know Dave's last name). Andrea and Dave gave the new paddlers wonderful instruction and very supportive coaching. The excellent coaching in combination with the fun mini-Olympics (in which we placed second, yayyyy!), the warm atmosphere and the contagious nature of dragon boating has hooked these women but good. They are keen to start practicing in earnest next season and take part in more races. And I am thrilled to see my hopes of forming a Vancouver lesbian dragon boat team turn into reality. Thank you to Paddle for Kids for the opportunity to get these women in a dragon boat and for making the entire experience so memorable. 

[damudamu]

I bring thanks from my PFK team, the BC Housing Blue Hammers. Special thanks to the organisers and volunteers and to Mike and Graham, our very patient coaches and steersfolk. Congratulations on such a successful day.

Race courses were good: not too long for a fun event but long enough to give people the idea of a race, and there was the added fun of the zig-zag obstacle course.

Bag of friut in the tent was a nice touch and lunch was better than anticipated.Too bad the coffee ran out a few times but that happens. Maybe more water next year, too?  I'd second the suggestion about lunch tickets, as we missed one of our mini-olympic events when our lunch arrived at the same time. People chose to eat instead.

Volunteers were great - and real stewards for the sport. Next year I'll need to decide if I want to captain the team or volunteer at the event. Decisions, decisions.

This was a team made up entirely of non-dragonboaters, myself and co-captain excepted.

It wasn't the regular group of jocks who typically sign up for our sports teams. We represented a pretty reasonable cross-section of our staff from building managers and maintenance staff, to public relations people, to project development folks, to exectutive office staff. I don't think anyone realized they were going to be hooked after our first race, but they all were.

The community aspect of this sport has meant a lot to me as a new paddler, and I think it goes a long way to encourage new people to give it a whirl. Speaking corporately for a moment, removing work silos and creating any kind of channel to communication is a good thing. Eighteen people who worked in differnt parts of our commission now have a common experience and people are still talking about it.

Most importantly, people are talking to their friends and collegues. And people are talking about BC Children's Hospital and how we can fundraise better next year. We had some real fundraising superstars on our team, but for the most part, we got started too late in the game to really pull that part together well. Next year.

Thanks everyone. Can't wait for next year.