FMG Dragon Boat Festival draws hundreds to Rotary Park

The South Saskatchewan River was a busy place Saturday for the 22nd annual FMG Dragon Boat Festival at Rotary Park.

Over 40 teams were being cheered on by over 1000 people.

“FMG put’s on such an amazing event that keeps us coming back,” said the team captain for team Ormageddon, who’ve been in the races for the last seven years.

Dragon Boat racing is now the fastest-growing team building event activity in the world, with every major city in North America able to boast a Dragon Boat Festival as part of their summer event schedule.

Money raised goes to Ronald MacDonald House Saskatchewan and the Children’s Wish Foundation.

“Children these days battling health problems sometimes get overlooked and we wanted to bring more awareness to those organizations,” said FMG Dragon Boat Race Festival Volunteer, Kim Morphy.

Opening Ceremonies of the @DragonBoatCda races in #yxe pic.twitter.com/8KFMn4LCT7

— JT Marshall (@jtmarshallCKOM) July 22, 2017

Morphy said over $70,000 is raised for the two charities.

“The winners of the festival get bragging rights and a trophy,” she said. “A lot of corporations take part in our races because it’s a great team building exercise.”

Gay Anderson with Children’s Wish said last year with other fundraisers during the festival they made $130,000.

“We’re hoping to make over $150,000 this year,” she said. “So we’re going to see growth this year even though we have fewer teams participating.”

Anderson said all the money goes to funding wishes in Saskatchewan.

“We do about 60 wishes a year ranging from travel wishes, to item wishes and even celebrity wishes,” she said. “Last year we did almost 70 wishes.”

Each wish averages about $10,000.

Gay Anderson with @childrenswishsk one of the charities @DragonBoatCda supports in #yxe pic.twitter.com/gcmbgKBi5k

— JT Marshall (@jtmarshallCKOM) July 22, 2017