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Dragon-boat festival still breathing fire after 17 years (5 photos)

'The awesome part of all this is when teams are exhausted; they’re completely spent physically, but they are smiling,' says Barrie Public Library director

With teams paddling for money and for first place, the 17th annual Dragon Boat Festival slithered into Heritage Park on Saturday. 

The event has been a staple in downtown Barrie near the end of August since 2003. This year had 47 teams racing for bragging rights and to raise money for their charity of choice.

The Barrie Public Library started the event to raise money for the then yet-to-be-built Painswick branch.

While the festival still raises money for library programs, it now focuses on helping several charities.

Barrie Public Library director Chris Vanderkruys told BarrieToday he was very happy with how the festival started today.

“The weather is fantastic," he said. "The water is so soft and flowing smooth for the teams. We couldn’t have asked for a better day."

Vanderkruys added that while the event is all about raising money for charity, seeing the teams do so with such joy is an amazing thing to witness. 

“The awesome part of all this is when teams are exhausted; they’re completely spent physically, but they are smiling,” he said. “You’ll see paddlers who can barely lift their arms shaking hands and high-fiving others from their teams or other teams.

"I really feel that the community has come together over the years in such a positive way for this event.”

To date, the festival has raised more than $1.75 million through a variety of charities, ranging from cancer research to palliative care and mental health.

HGS Canada is a local call centre that had a team competing today, with staff taking the paddles to the water.

Co-captain Mirada Down has a team of 20 people who have joined together to raise money for the CMHA Youth Shine program, despite the little experience in dragon-boating. 

“It took a lot to get the team together because of schedules, but we did get some corporate sponsorship and have been fundraising to make the day beneficial in that regard,” said Down.

“There are only two or three of us who have ever done a dragon-boat race before, so getting everybody in sync has been the main issue today," Down added. "We work at a call centre, so we talk all day. If we could all stop talking in the boat, we’d be great. Actually, if this was a talking race, there is no team here that could hold us."

But she and her team were having fun regardless of where they placed in the standings.

“In all seriousness, this has been a blast and at the end of the day, we will have raised money for youth mental health,” Down told BarrieToday at the lakeshore.

To sign up for next year’s race or to be part of the volunteer team, check out the festival website.