A team of local university students and TRHS alumni brought home a second-place win from the recent dragonboat races at Jones Lake.
Capturing the silver medal in the finals of the Greater Moncton Dragon Boat Festival on June 5, Captain Blackbeard went out with a bang in their last year of competing for the Charity Cup.
“We've raced together for four years and to end our final year with a race in the finals was such a positive experience for us all,” says team member Kathryn Crossman. “Plus having Gail LeBlanc and Robert Blackbeard, both cancer survivors, on the boat just increased our energy, enthusiasm and inspiration.”
The team raised more than $6,200 for the annual fundraising races in support of the IWK Children’s Hospital and Lions Sick Children’s Fund.
Crossman says in the final race, the participants were soaked before they even entered the boat from the pouring rain. But they came within .09 seconds from first place and are thrilled with their showing.
“We have been so fortunate to meet the people we've met and stick together through the thick and thin; everything we've gone through made us the individuals and the team we were this year,” she says.
“I just can't stress enough how fortunate I've been to have worked with each and every paddler and volunteer. My life has been truly blessed by the gift of great friends, a strong team and an amazing experience with Captain Blackbeard.”
This year’s race will be Captain Blackbeard’s last hurrah as they plan to pass on the torch (or the oars, so to speak) back to Tantramar High to let students there carry on the tradition.
The Captain Blackbeard team got its start four years ago when it was named in honour of TRHS student Robert Blackbeard, who at the time was undergoing cancer treatments for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
First diagnosed with the disease when he was 15, Robert underwent another round of treatments last year after suffering a relapse but he is now in remission.
