Dragon Boat Awakening Ceremony

The Dragons Awaken this Friday, May 19 at 6:00PM in downtown Joseph at the corner of Joseph and Main Streets, between the Outlaw and Embers restaurants who are offering all services throughout the event. The event will feature a  traditional awakening of the sleeping dragons from their long winter hibernation. Wally, Wallowa County’s freshly restored Kaohsiung type dragon boat, awakens to participate in the training of the all-women’s DITW Rose Festival Race team. Everyone must see this spectacular dragon boat. Thanks to the Kaohsiung City Taiwan/Portland OregonSister City Association for the boat and all the volunteers who participated in the repairs and extensive restoration.

Clinics with Portland’s Golden Dragons coaches, Rick and Colleen McLaughlin, will be here Saturday and Sunday June 3 and 4 to put on clinics with emphasis on coaches and steersmen training and paddling techniques.  All members welcome. Exact time will be available next week.

Rose Festival  Race
The all-women’s team is set to go to Portland to represent all of Wallowa County in the prestigious Kaohsiung City Taiwan/Portland Oregon Sister City Association/Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Race on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 9 thru 11. Despite the adverse weather, hats off to those hardy practice participants. The recent practices have been well represented, and everyone is striving to improve personal conditioning while paddling skills are impressive for this time of year. Team spirit and attitude is positive.

The DITW women’s team is registered. We have a majority of the team at this time; however, we do have a few paddling positions available to members who still want to participate in the event. We have arranged to fill in with orphaned paddlers from Portland teams; however, we would prefer to fill these open seats with DITW Paddlers.

MEMBERSHIP
Although we have obtained a few new members at this time, the awaking ceremony and future membership drives are planned, and we are looking into attending the Joseph Farmer's Market on Memorial Day weekend.

We had 15 Joseph High School students participated in a dry-land orientation to dragon boat racing.  Unfortunately, due to high winds, they did not get on the water. We are planning to get them all on the water ASAP.  All DITW members present were impressed on how quickly they caught on to the instruction.