Aoraki Dragon Boat
Association (Inc)
Christchurch, NZ

International Breast Cancer Festival

Aoraki Dragons received an email from the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission (IBCPC), outlining the criteria for hosting an IBCPC "International Participatory Festival" for 2010.

Aoraki submitted a pitch for this festival, having received NZDBAs approval and support. It will be a fantastic event, as it coincides with ABOL's ten year celebration.

This is the regatta that ABOL competed in, at Caloundra, Australia in September 07, so they are very familiar with what is involved. They had about 2,000 entrants (85 to 90 teams) so it is a bit of a step up from Christchurch-only events.

The prospect of holding an event of this scale at a venue like Lake Hood is mouth-watering. A fantastic media opportunity, and sure to be very attractive to big sponsors.

On 15-August-08 Jane Frost emailed Aoraki:

To all Breast Cancer Teams:
It is our pleasure to give you an update on the bidding process for the 2010 International BreastCancer Padllers Commission Participatory Festival.

We received 5 bids by the deadline of July 31, 2008. They came from:

• Christchurch, N.Z.,
• Peterborough, Canada;
• Nottingham, U.K.;
• Windermere, U.K. and
• Florence, Italy.

There are five judges independently reviewing the bids against the criteria set by the Steering Committee. The judges come from Australia, Canada and the Netherlands and include a representative of the International Dragon  Boat Federation.

An announcement of the successful bid and the names of the 5 judges will be made public by mid-September. This will hopefully give any teams interested in attending lots of time to prepare for the next outstanding participatory event.

With best wishes from the IBCPC Steering Committee

Michelle Hanton
Mary McAvoy
Sandi BJ
Eleanor Nielsen
Jenny Yule
Jane Frost

And on 20-October they announced:

"The winning bid was submitted by Peterborough, Canada. The 2010 IBCPC Participatory Festival for breast cancer dragon boat teams will be held from June 11 - 13, 2010.

"We would like to encourage [Aoraki] to submit for the next IBCPC Participatory Festival in 2014. The judges and the IBCPC Steering Committee will be requesting the Peterborough Organizing Committee to provide a workshop on the key components of the 2014 IBCPC Participatory Festival bidding process. We strongly recommend that your bid committee attend the Peterborough Festival and the workshop"