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# Stay home- how BCS teams cope with the COVID emergency in Europe

By Cecilia Picchi – Florence Dragon Lady Lilt – IBCPC European RepIn the first days of 2020, all over the world newscasts began announcing that a virus called covid-19 or coronavirus was spreading in a Chinese city, that it was causing many deaths, and that the city was taking measures of containment. From Europe this news appeared distant and similar to those of other past viruses. On a bad day in February, the newscasts announced that the virus was detected in patients close to us in Italy...

CANOHÁ DRAGON TEAM CURITIBA, BRAZIL

By Mária de Fátima Fernandes Vara, Karina Kulig, Deborah VonsIt all started when Fátima Fernandes was introduced to Deborah Vons. Fatima, Physiotherapist and Physical Educator, was working in the international area of canoeing, and already knew about breast cancer dragon boating and wanted to work with women who had undergone breast cancer treatment.On the other hand, Deborah, a survivor of two breast cancers, was already practicing canoeing and also knew of BCS paddling. The impact of canoei...

IBCPC festivals

It is only two years from now until New Zealand 2022 and if like many of us when you attend one of these IBCPC festivals you think, wow, I could host that in my country. This is the time to start thinking about what that might look like for you.In 2022 we will hold a meeting for those interested in holding the IBCPC festival. This meeting will outline the bid criteria as well as discuss the considerations that need to be taken into account. It is a very exciting event to be part of so please mak...

Join the global Virtual paddle with Dragon Heart Vermont (DHVT)

Dragonheart Vermont (USA) is hosting a FREE worldwide BCS dragon boat celebration.Below is an email from DHVT:Dragonheart Vermont (DHVT) is a dynamic dragon boat organization located in Burlington VT. We started as one breast cancer team in 2005 and have grown to over 200 members with BCS and supporters paddling for fun and competition. Every year the BCS members host an annual event, "Sisters at Heart" and invite BCS teams from nearby for a weekend of joy, celebration and dragon boating. This y...

Letter from the President

As I sit and write this update it is a beautiful sunny day in Christchurch, New Zealand as we are in the very last day of autumn, with the first day of winter upon us. It is so lovely to see the blue blue sky and to be able to enjoy this before it gets much cooler.Well, what an incredible time it has been for so many of us as we learn to live in this new world that has been brought about by COVID-19. Some countries like my own have excelled in managing this pandemic and we now have zero active c...

Paddling “virtually” to celebrate 10 years of Plurabelle Paddlers

Article written by: Dara Duffy, Susan Rowe and Fiona Slevin, Dublin, IrelandWhen Fiona Tiernan’s breast cancer recurred in 2009 she ‘decided to put together a dragon boat racing team for women who are recovering from breast cancer’. Fiona didn’t have a paddle, a crew, a boat or any money, but she had vision, courage, tenacity and incredible powers of persuasion.On Saturday the 17th of April 2010, the Plurabelle Paddlers held our first open day meeting. Six months later the dragon boat te...

Pan American Dragon Boat Federation (PADBF) hosts the Pan American Club Crew Championships (PACCC)

The PADBF PACCC are open to member countries of the PADBF, these countries are: USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.In addition to these countries the organizers will extend a special membership to IBCPC member country teams from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. We would like to remind teams that this is not a participatory event, but rather a competitive competition and the usual requirements that teams are very competent, BCS from front to back (including helm/steer)...

Steering Committee updates: Global representation & Merchandise

The board recently undertook the first IBCPC strategic planning session. We managed to cover a great deal of ground to form the basis of our next five years. We look forward to sharing this with you when it is finished. It will also be placed on the IBCPC website.One of the outcomes of our strategic planning session we looked at how we could engage with our teams more directly and in particular through our national representatives.We have split the world into regions based on where our current m...

Thank you Abu Dhabi Jets

We were stunned to receive this email from our member team the Abu Dhabi Jets. Once we had picked up our dropped jaws off the floor, all we could manage to say was a really big WOW and a huge THANK YOU. This is particularly generous as usually teams are asking us how they can fundraise, we all know it’s the one thing that brings us together but can also drive us apart as it seems to be never ending. So to receive this gift is doubly generous.Hello my name is Dawn Hatzadony and I am one of the ...

Update BCS teams in Germany - 1st quarter

By Svenja-BruhnThe development in Germany continues to be a very positive one. Many embrace this rehabilitative sport and there are several initiatives to start a new pink team. Latest example is the pink paddler Orga-team within the Ghostdragons at the 1.Hallescher Drachenboot Verein (City: Halle) looking for new BCS paddlers. Not easy in Corona times. On the other hand it is often not a bad way to start looking for members first as we have seen in Argentina, where they had no dragonboat at the...

Update on Austria/Vienna Pink Dragons - 1st quarter 2020

By Svenja Franke-Bruhn, Annelore Palac & Helen JohnstonSince the beginning of the year the Vienna Pink Dragons have seen many dramatic changes like so many other clubs around the world. In January and February we were still out on the water paddling in combined sessions with the Vienna Dragons, while others walked or biked around the Alte Donau. This was followed by the newly introduced team lunch, which proved to also be a great way to introduce our newbies to our group. Who could foresee t...

Working out during a pandemic

By coach Linda KuskaLives have been changed, lives have been lost, jobs have been lost, businesses have suffered, everyone is self-quarantining, social distance/physical distancing are everyday words now.With all this happening around the World, dragon boating just doesn't seem very important right now......right?? Yes, that is true but physical activity is so good for our mental and physical health.Most dragon boat festivals have been canceled, paddling in a dragon boat is not possible since yo...

Get ready to register for the Dragon Boat Festival 2022

Oh my goodness, no doubt you will have received the countdown notices. The clock has certainly been ticking. Whilst registration was due to open on the 1st April 2020, due to the current worldwide situation with COVID-19 the Festival organising committee (AWTO Trust) and the IBCPC Future Festivals Committee issued a joint statement advising that the registration has been delayed until 1st July 2020. So that gives you an extra time to plan and get ready in time to register. We can reassure y...

IBCPC's Strategic Planning Session

Updated: Jun 19, 2020Since inception IBCPC’s global membership has continued to grow from that early start with 57 teams represented at the first IBCPC Congress in 2010.As you will see with the achievements over the past 20 months (listed below) we have been really busy (remember too that we are all volunteers with day jobs other than lucky Betty Solley who is retired). We realise that it is high time that we thought strategically “where to from here”. We had hoped to start ...

Life on the "Front Lines" during Covid-19 - a Nurse's Perspective

By Linda Kuska in CanadaLife has been much different for the entire WORLD with Covid-19 but what is it like for a Health Care Worker?What is life on the "Front Lines"?How are hospital workers dealing with this?You all know me for my articles in this Newsletter as the "High-Performance Coach",  I am the Team Captain of the Rowbust BCS Dragon Boat Team in London, Ontario, Canada........... but in my "real" life, I am a Registered Nurse at the London Health Sciences Centre ...

Living in a dream world. Dreams become reality.

by Virginia Mezzo, Chicas Pink, Santa FeDreamers, Passionate, Romantic, Fun, Fine, Smart, Drive, Fighters, together we travelled to Escobar, Argentina for the 2nd national meeting of Pink Women from across Argentina.Everything was Pink, what a paradox, so exciting to all be together living this dream with these survivors from Argentina. On Saturday morning, the Pink hosts, ROSAS DEL PLATA, welcomed us all with so much warmth. The place next to the lake was swathed in Pink. We were so excite...

Rosas del Plata celebrate the 2nd Argentina Pink meeting as seen through the eyes of a 17-year-old

My name is Paul Yadid. I am 17 years old and I am starting my last year of high school next week.On Saturday, March 7th my brother Lucas and I were involved in helping with registration at the 2nd Argentine Pink festival that gathered together over 100 pink paddlers from all over our country, Argentina. My uncle Roberto Yahni who is a gynaecologist/obstetrician (my mom, Matilde Yahni spares no one in the family) was also involved by giving a lecture about the benefits of exercise post ...

Chinese Dragon Sisters follow their dream during Coronavirus Quarantine

Report by IBCPC China Rep Beirong (Bei) Xiong March 21, 2020China’s women, men and children have experienced a most unusual 2020 Chinese New Year and the longest homestay quarantine in history, all in aid of containing the COVID-19 virus. It has been over 9 weeks now since communities across the country locked down.We checked in with members of the newly minted breast cancer survivor dragon boat teams in Shanghai and Beijing to see how they are coping. Despite the difficult and unusu...

Italy in lockdown from Lucia’s perspective

All of us around the world live in very hard times right now because of the sneaky COVID-19 virus. This virus has no borders, it comes and goes wherever it likes and as it pleases. My country, Italy, is suffering very much, we are shedding many tears over the >10,000 deaths. The tireless work of all the medical staff is so very moving to observe, they are taking care of all patients, not only as professional staff but also offering the last words comfort and kindness to these people...

IBCPC Newsletter - March 2019

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From the desk of IBCPC President Meri Gibson

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year everyone. It seems such a long time ago since we turned over the pages of the calendar to 2020 and so much seems to have happened for so many of you since our last greeting in December 2019.The northern Hemisphere has been sheltering from the cold, although a few hearty souls have recently been “paddling” at the Ice Dragon Boat festival in Ottawa, Canada and I am sure we will have an update from the BC attendees. One of my colleagues from New Zealand wen...

IBCPC Newsletter - December 2019

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IBCPC Newsletter - August 2019

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IBCPC Newsletter - June 2019

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IBCPC Newletter - January 2019

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