It's time: Enter the Dragons
A fun time and an economic boost for the Flathead Valley unfold Saturday on Flathead Lake.
The first Montana Dragon Boat Festival will feature 56 teams paddling 46-foot-long craft on a 500-meter race course in front of Flathead Lake Lodge.
In addition to 1,200 participants on board the boats, more than 2,000 spectators are expected for the inaugural races.
The races are free, unique and not to be missed. Action starts at 10 a.m. Saturday and concludes sometime after 4 p.m. with the championship races.
The local dragon boat festival has proved to be so popular that prospective teams had to be turned away because all the possible racing slots were filled. Already organizers are considering making next year’s dragon boat extravaganza a two-day event to accommodate more teams.
The field for Saturday’s lake event includes 40 Montana teams and 16 from out of state (even as far away as Texas) and from Canada.
The out-of-town paddlers and spectators are expected to spend around $500,000 in the Flathead. That infusion plus the fun nature of dragon-boat racing make the festival a worthwhile venture.
And once out-of-state teams and spectators get a view of Flathead Lake from the Flathead Lake Lodge, our bet is that the Montana Dragon Boat Festival could emerge as one of the premier events of its kind on the continent.
THE PUSH for donors to an endowment fund for Shepherd’s Hand Clinic has enlisted an unusual ally in West Valley writer Frank Owen du Bois.
Owen du Bois has pledged the income from his collection of short stories, “Getting Stronger at the Broken Places,” to the fundraising effort for the popular free clinic in Whitefish.
His book proceeds will go toward the $250,000 matching challenge issued by Whitefish philanthropists Dave and Sherry Lesar to help Shepherd’s Hand create a $1 million endowment by 2015.
“It should be a nice shot in the arm for the clinic,” Owen du Bois said.
The largesse for the clinic is the latest philanthropy for Owen du Bois, who was also the sole financial patron for the first year of the Glacier Symphony Orchestra that he helped found.
Generosity such as this truly makes the valley a better place.