The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival came roaring back to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the year of the Tiger.
The festival’s 30th year features hundreds of participants from across North America.
Members of the Paddle for the Cure Dragon Boat team, among 170 teams, are raising money for cancer research.
What You Need To Know
- Dragon boat racing has existed in Chinese culture for over 2,000 years
- The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival took a two-year hiatus during the pandemic
- Over 1,000 people and 170 teams from across the country are participating in this year's competition
“We are here coming back stronger and we have to prove that we paddle and then sail strong,” Leah Salmorin of Queens said.
She is 13 years cancer-free and taking part in the dragon boat race alongside fellow survivors and Elmhurst staff.
Salmorin was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and received chemotherapy, radiation and hormone therapy at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens.
“It really is a true team effort,” Jay Hwang, a fellow paddler and director of Nutrition Services at Elmhurst, said. “Through practicing, we’ve become good friends together. So we like to say that the hospital is a community and our family and we can provide the best service to all our community.”
Organizers say they’re overjoyed to be back at Meadow Lake after a two-year hiatus.
“We’re all very happy to get back and we all want to get back to normal,” festival chairman Henry Wan said. “We hope that this event and this festival can sort of help the city get back to normal.”
Each boat is custom made in Hong Kong, weighing one ton and carefully painted with a dragon head at the front and tail at the rear. The boats are piloted by up to 20 crew members, include 18 paddlers.
Dragon boat racing is a longstanding tradition dating back 2,000 years. While the annual festival is a celebration of Chinese culture, organizers say people from all walks of life are welcome and encouraged to participate.
“We also want to promote multi-culturalism and if you look around, many people from different walks of life, different race, different gender and that’s what we’re trying to achieve,” Wan said. “Bring people together and make the city better.”
For Salmorin and her team, that sense of community inspires them to paddle forward, no matter what obstacles stand in their way.
“Having cancer is not the end of the world! They could be an athlete and they could live their life,” she said.
The festival is a two-day event culminating Sunday evening with the U.S. Dragon Boat Open Championship Race.