The Survivorship dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors reflects their strong community support with this payment towards their $30,000 donation to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.  The money will help provide medical equipment for the Penticton Regional Hospital expansion.
Maureen Lutz remembers the first time a group of Penticton area breast cancer survivors struggled to carry their 800-pound dragon boat into the water of Skaha Lake.

It was the year 2000 and a group of inexperienced paddlers had decided to form a dragon boat team under the direction of newly-hired coach Don Mulhall.

Lutz said the first few times this group of 20 women managed to get their craft out of the boatshed and down to the water, it was quite a spectacle in itself, turning heads of passersby.  Being the first dragon boat in Penticton, others were just as mystified about what they were doing out on the water.

“We were just a bunch of middle-aged ladies out on the boat, trying to pretend we knew what we were doing,” she chuckled. “None of us knew what we were getting into.  All of us were beginners, so we kind of stood out.”

The Survivorship experience grew from there, in tandem with the sport of dragon boating. There are now 10 dragon boat teams in Penticton.

Survivorship has since become one of the best known Dragonboat teams in the province and donates to charities promoting women’s health issues.

This includes a $30,000 donation to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation’s campaign to provide medical equipment for the new tower at Penticton Regional Hospital.

Lutz recalled her initial response to the call for breast cancer survivors interested in dragonboating.

“I went the next night. ‘I don’t have a clue what I’m getting into,’ I said to my husband, ‘but I’m going to go and find out.’

“For most of the other women there, it was the same thing.”