For the past two decades, the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival has continued to bring hundreds of people to Barker’s Island. The annual event is hosted by the Superior Rotary Club, and the funds raised help support the 23rd Veteran. The non-profit helps veterans and family members who served in our armed forces.

Mark Leutgeb is a long-time volunteer and has participated in the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival for the past ten years. He says he comes back every year because he loves how fast the teams paddle across the marina.

“Nothing better than the feeling of all 20 people all paddling together and just cruising, just absolutely cruising. The best part is it’s usually right about two minutes,” Leutgeb said. “So if you can work hard for two minutes, you can paddle a Dragon Boat. If you’ve paddled a canoe, you can paddle a Dragon Boat. It’s super simple and it’s great fun.”

People travel all over to watch or compete in the dragon boat festival. Also a lot of teams rally for a cause to help spread awareness like one team from Canada named Chemo Savvy. Yvonne Beaudin, Maureen Matthews, and Sylvie Mathers say the are spreading awareness for breast cancer.

“All of us are breast cancer survivors. At one time we got breast cancer. We’ve got 30 years survivors to a few years, maybe a couple of years,” Mathers said. “Our goal is to prove that there’s life after cancer,” Matthews added.

One of the most important parts competing in the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival is the teamwork. It takes every person in the boat to make their way across the water.

“Everybody should give it a try. It’s a team. It’s not an individual sport. It doesn’t matter how good or how unathletic you are,” Matthews said. “You get in that boat and you’re a team and you’re all working together and it’s fun. Anybody can do anything for three minutes and that’s how long a race lasts.”

For more information about this year’s Dragon Boat Festival you can read more here. Also for other stories happening in Superior you can read more here.