HHP Women’s Team Performs Well at Barrie Festival
Haliburton made its mark at the Barrie Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday August 26th, 2017. The three-race effort paid off, our team getting faster with each race: the Haliburton Highlands Paddlers placed second in the festival’s Female Consolation final.
In addition to our regular twice-a-week mixed (men & women) sessions on the water, race coach Lois Deacon had previously held two special Thursday evening practices just for the Barrie Festival team and made sure, on the day, that the 21-member (20 paddlers plus drummer) all-women team had fun, paddled hard and paddled in unison.
Our club chairperson and race drummer, Elli, was pleased with Saturday’s results, saying “it is unfortunate that we ended up in the Consolation Finals, our Consolation Final time was actually faster than all of the times posted in the Women’s main finals.”
Saturday marked the Barrie festival’s 15th year and a total of 48 teams from across Ontario competed. The atmosphere was great, the weather was superb and the venue was stunning.
Dragon boaters were asked to be mindful of the need in their local communities, Festival organizers specifying that each team should raise a minimum of $500 for a local charity.
The Haliburton Highlands Paddlers raised $1,696.00 to be shared by the Haliburton Food Bank and the Rowan Pettinella Fund!
Haliburton Highlands Paddlers competes in two dragon boat festivals each year. In June, our mixed team won a silver medal at the Port Perry Festival.
The Haliburton Highlands Paddlers, a women’s and men’s club, paddles two days per week on Monday and Wednesday at 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. New members are always welcome.
The club’s 41-foot dragon boat, Susanna Foo, affectionately known as ‘the Foo’, is moored at the Patient News dock on Haliburton’s Grass Lake from May till mid-September, after which she is wrapped and stored for the winter at Haliburton RPM.
This year’s very successful season is about to draw to a close, with our last on-water session being Wednesday 5:30pm, Sept. 13th.
On Thursday Aug. 31st, our 54-member club hosted its annual Coaches Appreciation Night at the Fish Hatchery. All the members of our club join in giving a great big thanks to our volunteer (& excellent!) coaches; Scotty Boyd, Lois Deacon, Janine Papadopoulos and Marg Cox, without whom there would be no “Foo Paddles Up” in Haliburton!
