Dragon Race

Dragon boats are the world's largest flat water racing canoes, propelled by a crew of 20 paddlers, plus a drummer and steersperson. The paddlers move in unison, combining strength with teamwork in a dragon boat adorned with an elaborate design that originates in ancient China.

The race:

Dragon Boat teams from corporations, community organizations, Hospitals and schools took part in this year's Philadelphia event held on Saturday October 4, 2014.

The Maghreb American Health Foundation, Inc is thrilled to announce its successful and rewarding first time dragon boat race. MAHF was lodged in tent # 91 shared with the team of Fox Chase Cancer Center. Food, beverages and meals were provided by MAHF board of directors and volunteer paddlers. MAHF team started aligning in the tent at around 6 AM to organize the tent and warm-up. The first round of the race started at 8:35 for MAHF, the first experience was fabulous and MAHF team was coordinated but needed more synchronization and as a result MAHF was ranked 5th. The semifinal was scheduled at 11:30 AM, before that time MAHF team had a better warm up and focused on how to paddle in a synchronized manner.

MAHF was ranked 3rd this time and made better score in time making the 500 meters in 2:45 min. The final was even more challenging as we had to race with the best teams. MAHF made a good score of 2:47 min and was ranked 7th. MAHF made it in the 6th place among the 18 first teams.

The dragon boat race was a fantastic and rewarding experience adding fun and physical hardship to a cause. Although that MAHF didn’t reach its target in terms of funds but its board of directors and the volunteer paddlers were very happy with the outcome and proposed to do it again for the next festival and have more practices to help the team work better together.