The summer is officially upon us.
The weather is looking good so far, the tan lines are out and this weekend is the fourth annual Save-on-Foods Dragon Boat Festival. For fellow paddlers, this weekend is like Christmas. With racing, paddlers parties and more, this weekend will be a blur of time spent on the water.
Months of preparation all come down to this, but of course win or lose it's all for a good cause. Teams like mine -- who consider ourselves the winners in the beer gardens -- first ones there, last to leave -- don't really care how well we do and are there just to have fun. This year's festival will help fund a critical new equipment piece for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital: a digital mammography scanner. The high-tech scanner is compatible with the digital breast biopsy unit that dragon boaters have been paddling for since 2003.
Events are happening on the harbour all weekend, starting with the opening ceremonies today at 4:30 p.m. at Swy-a-Lana lagoon. The Dotting of the Eye ceremony is performed by Buddhist monks from 91原创 to rouse the dragons and cleanse and bless the area of competition. Tonight the first Light a Candle for Cancer event takes place in the harbour. At the festival site, candles will be available for sale and after the breast cancer survivors banquet, will be placed in the lagoon. Races take place Saturday and Sunday with the breast cancer survivors race and carnation ceremony at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
OK, for those not involved or interested in dragon boating, there are other choices this weekend. Saturday there is a host of activities including the fourth annual Howie Meeker Charity Golf Tournament for B.C. Guide Dog Services at Fairwinds, 3506 Carmichael Rd. Call 468-7886. Also Saturday, those with a sweet tooth for fresh fruit can pick their own. A brief registration session is at 7 p.m. then harvest all season. Call 753-7470 Ext 2. or email [email protected]
Sunday for those wanting to get some exercise there is a guided hike up Mount Benson summit at 9 a.m. The trip takes about six hours return. The strenuous hike will require good footwear, snack food and drinking water. Call the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust at 714-1990. And on Monday for some educational fun for the kids, The Miner's Cottage and Steam Locomotive at Nanaimo District Museum will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this summer.