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The Jersey Dragon Boat Festival, which celebrates its 25th year of rowing races and raising funds for patients at Jersey Hospice Care this September, has named VG as its new sponsor. Islanders are invited to join in the fun and enter a team for the anniversary year.
Since the first Jersey Dragon Boat Festival in 1997, thousands of people in Jersey have taken part. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, organisers are looking for a record-breaking 60 teams (18 people per team) to take to the water in the iconic dragon boats and race up and down the harbour in a series of heats. It’s a day full of fun, laughter and friendly competition and registration is now open online for 2022. Teams of friends, family and colleagues are invited to enter - no experience is needed to join, just loads of enthusiasm and fancy dress is always encouraged. Spectators are invited to turn up on the day to cheer on friends and soak up the atmosphere too. On shore there will be food and refreshment stalls, live music and entertainment, and an area for each team to have a gazebo set up for the day. For more information or to register your team today, visit www.jerseyhospicecare.com/events.
A dragon boat is a 40-foot long canoe-like vessel with an ornately carved dragon’s head and tail. One person sits as a helm, keeping the boat in course with a giant paddle, while a drummer sits in the prow beating out the time and 16 people sat in pairs do the paddling to race the other teams. The Jersey Dragon Boat Festival is one of the largest festivals of its kind in the UK and a much-loved part of the Island’s summer calendar.
Managing Director at VG, Iain Mason, said: “When the opportunity arose to partner with Jersey Hospice Care, not only did it align to our desire to give back to our community, it offered a partner whose values were synergistic with our own and, coincidentally, in a year where both Hospice and VG would celebrate their 40th birthdays. Hospice are able to provide their services to our Island community, and in recent years to a number of our team and their families, because of private and corporate donations and fundraising events, such as the Dragon Boat Festival which our team have been keen participants in over the years. We’re extremely proud to be the exclusive sponsor of the Dragon Boat Festival and looking forward to supporting the Hospice team in delivering a fantastic event!”
Geoff Benning, who’s taken part in the Jersey Hospice Care Team in previous years, said: “The Dragon Boat Festival is just one of those days that is always lots of fun and colleagues from all areas of the charity like to join in. We’ve already started to get our team together for September, just need to think of a great fancy dress costume now.”
The Jersey Hospice Care Dragon Boat Festival will take place on Saturday 17 September at Albert Pier, with the first race starting at 10am and the spectacular final at 4pm. Islanders are invited to arrange teams of 18 people and to sign up at www.jerseyhospicecare.com/events. Each team is asked to pledge to raise a minimum of £500 to go towards caring for the patients at Hospice with a life-limiting illness.
