Fourth Annual Charlotte Dragon Boat Festival Is A Success

May 16th competition celebrates heritage, team building, and community spirit

Charlotte–For the 4th year in a row, Asian Festival goers and the Dragon Boat teams from local businesses and community groups, as well as from Charleston, S.C., got what they came to Ramsey Creek Park for. That is, a full day's worth of the colors, the sights, and the sounds of this festive and increasingly popular event. Occasional cloudbursts provided little disruption to the 4th Annual Charlotte Dragon Boat Race and 10th Annual Asian Festival on an otherwise brilliantly gorgeous spring day. The good-natured spirit of the competition served to amplify the positive sense of community generated by the event.

The teams that participated in the Dragon Boat Festival demonstrated the diversity of the Charlotte community. Perhaps just as noteworthy, crew members among these teams were a nice blend of newcomers as well as veterans. This is well reflected from the progress achieved in their time trials throughout the day, as well as the time record in the final heat.

Thanks to the tireless effort by local Dragon Boat enthusiasts led by Randy and Lori Crow, we also celebrated the first local cancer survivor team entry to compete against breast cancer survivor teams from Charleston.

As with past festivals, this year's event was organized by the Carolinas Asian-American Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. The race would not have been possible without the generous support from major sponsors: Food Lion, AT&T--The Real Yellow Pages, Bank of America, the Chun Group, Crossroads Charlotte, Duke Energy, Wachovia/Wells Fargo Co. and Midtown Sundries at Lake Norman

The Charlotte Dragon Boat Association donated hundred of hours in coaching and working with all the festival teams throughout weekends in April and May.

First Place-Group B Consolation Champion:
"Healing Dragon Too", with members and friends of local cancer survivors

Group A Championship:
The Wild Dragon of the Chinese American Association of Charlotte surged past Organized Chaos and the Charleston Surge on its way to its first gold medal.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored, volunteered, participated in or attended the festival. We look forward to seeing you again in 2010!

Participants in the 4th Annual Charlotte Dragon Boat Festival Race