By Svenja-Bruhn
The 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 time; the dream to own one only came true later on.
Unfortunately, like everywhere else in the world many events had to be cancelled, and it is particularly sad for the teams who would have started a pink category for the very first time in Minden or in Hannover. Other popular pink events which had to be postponed to 2021 are the new ‘German Pink Cup’ introduced in 2019 with no common rules and aimed for those who want to compete in a fun environment and the yearly pink “Wanderfahrt”, changing the location each time. I had the chance to take part in Berlin last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Picture 1: IBCPC paddle in Berlin.
The Pink Patrol Team, Bochum had teamed up with Pink Pearls Team, Heilbronn in order to support the Vienna Pink Dragons in their aim to bring awareness to a new region in the form of a pink category at the highest race in the world, in Defereggental, Tirol on the 4.7.20. We now have our eyes set on July 2021 and hope to find more easily additional paddlers to the already interested pink ladies from the Aschaffenburger Schlossdrachen.
Picture 2: Defereggental.
As outlined in one of the last newsletters; Pink Dragonistas, Hannover did extremely well in Sevilla during the ECCC and came home with three gold medals. In due course they were nominated as the only BCS team from Germany for the CWCC to be held in 2020 in Aix-les-Bains. One can imagine their huge disappointment following the cancelation. Cecilia mentions in her report in this newsletter how they have started the virtual walk initiative to Aix-les-Bains from Hannover in order to give this dream a different, but still nice ending as a team.
I learned that there is interest to form one German composite team for the IBCPC festival in New Zealand. I will send out again the message explaining the new rule that every team member has to come from a BCS team affiliated with the IBCPC.
So far only four of the around 20 existing BCS teams are IBCPC members in Germany. With the enrollment of a composite team we are working to ensure this number will rise.
Last but not least and on a more positive note the first BCS team in Germany, Pink Ladies Wiesbaden, celebrated their 10th anniversary on the 1st of May. Due to the current restrictions it was just a small gathering at home with the idea of a bigger party being deferred to a later stage. The team was established in 2010 by Hannelore Braselmann, who celebrated in December 2019 her 85th birthday. Hannelore, together with Anke Heinzmann, their supporter and helm from the very beginning, managed to form a well established group over the years with numerous trainings, regattas and pink events including being the host for the first German Pink Cup.
One of the highlights in their years has been the participation in the Vogalonga in 2015. Many people pulled together for the success of this including Cecilia Picchi, who helped with crucial information on how to launch the boat. As I paddled as a guest with the Florence Dagon Lady LILT Team in 2015 we had a team dinner in Cannaregio organized by Milena Vacirca together with the Wiesbaden Girls, a memorable nice evening with delicious Venetian specialties.
Picture 3: Vogalonga 2015. (The picture shows two boats: Pink Ladies Wiesbaden with pink wigs and the Florence Dragons Ladies team where I paddled as a guest)
One of the Wiesbaden ladies, Elisabeth Kassel-Breden sent me some details about the team including the following picture and sends her best wishes to all pink paddlers around the world.
Picture 4: Wiesbaden team sends their best wishes to all pink paddlers around the world!