Paddling for breast cancer recovery

Different shades of pink roses floated in the water along the shore of Flathead Lake in front of a packed beach at Flathead Lake Lodge on Saturday afternoon.

The roses were thrown by three of the 56 teams that participated in the first Montana Dragon Boat Festival, Abreast in the Rockies from Cranbrook, British Columbia, Pink Phurree from Houston, Texas, and Sister Power from Medicine Hat, Alberta.

It was part of what’s become a tradition at all dragon boat festivals, the Breast Cancer Flower Ceremony.

“Breast cancer survivor has such a connection to dragon boat racing as a whole,” said Rob Brisendine from the Kalispell Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The KCVB organized the dragon boat festival as a way to draw visitors from out of the area into the Flathead Valley during the shoulder season. According to Brisendine, the festival was an “overwhelming success.” It brought around 4,200 spectators to the Flathead Lake Lodge.

They estimate the event brought about $500,000 in direct economic impact to the valley, and Brisendine said that number could be even higher.

Tacoma Boat Company provided boats and steerers for most of the teams, while some Canadian teams brought their own.

Dragon boat racing has become a big sport in Canada and Vancouver, British Columbia is where the flower ceremony originated. The cancer survivor ceremony started in 1997 with a breast cancer survivor dragon boat team in Vancouver. During their races, team members carried pink carnations as a sign of hope for a teammate who had a recurrence of breast cancer. At one point they threw their flowers into the water.

Dauneen Lerose and Gwen Allison from Abreast in the Rockies said the ceremony is a part of every dragon boat festival they’ve attended, and they attend two to three each year. Abreast in the Rockies is in their seventh season as a dragon boat racing team. The team has about 25 members who are either breast cancer survivors or supporters of survivors.

Lerose and Allison are supporters and have been since the team formed seven years ago. The team practices twice a week almost year round.

“It’s really good for the survivors,” Allison said. “Good for fitness and for recovery.”

Lerose said the team was inspired by the same thing that has become inspiration for so many breast cancer survivor/supporter teams across the world, a dragon boat team formed in 1996 by Doctor Don C. McKenzie called Abreast in a Boat. The team started as an experiment, made up of only cancer survivors, to test the thought that regular upper body exercise in women treated for breast cancer encourages lymphedema.

Lymphedema is a condition caused by blockage of the lymph vessels that drain fluid from tissues throughout the body. It can be caused by the removal of lymph nodes and breast tissue (in the case of breast cancer).

McKenzie, a sports medicine physician and exercise physiologist at the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre in British Columbia sought to disprove the thought and succeeded. Not one of the Abreast in a Boat team members had an occurrence of lymphedema.

“And that team was so much stronger physically,” Lerose said.

Allison added that it’s not just good for physical strength, but mental strength and comradery as well.

Brisendine said there are now over 200 dragon boat teams around the world formed by breast cancer survivors and their supporters.

The festival raised around $8,000 through team fees and a live and silent auction for Save a Sister, a local collaborative formed to promote awareness and early detection of breast cancer.

“It’s great that we have some local presence here,” Brisendine said. “And can keep that money here.”

Teams like Big Brothers Big Sisters and A Ray of Hope also raised money for their own non-profit organizations. Big Brothers Big Sisters had their team members raise around $250 per seat.

Allison said she really enjoyed the event and hopes that next year’s event will be a two-day event.

Brisendine said the KCVB isn’t sure about extending the length of the festival just yet.

“If two days makes it more attractive for out-of-market visitation then we will make it a two-day event,” Brisendine said. “We’ve already got the space reserved for next year.”