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Date: 7/28/2020
WESTFIELD – “Paddle Together,” a short film produced by Small Forces out of Chicago, focuses on the Paradise City Dragon Boat Racing team of Northampton and their coalition of cancer survivors and supporters.
The short film showcases the team as they train at their Northampton headquarters before shifting to the team’s competition at the Boston Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival.
Lisa Butler, a Westfield resident and five-year veteran with the team, said the Paradise City Dragons teamed up with Small Forces when a former captain reached out after seeing an interview with one of the producers on a podcast.
She said, “Our captain at the time called up Small Forces and told Katie Prentiss Onsager that we were breast cancer survivors and supporters and she took to our story right away.”
Butler said that it was an awesome experience for her team to be a part of the PBS Short Film Festival.
“The message is most important to me. Dragon boating can bring breast cancer survivors back to activity while still finding great support and meaningful relationships after their difficult cancer journey. I hope survivors watch the film come out and join a dragon boat team and see what resources dragon boating can offer as a support system,” she said.
Butler explained that dragon boat racing works as physical therapy for breast cancer survivors because it helps improve balance, focus, flexibility, and coordination.
She said that the Paradise City Dragon Boat Racing team is a place for people of all ages and demographics. “No experience is necessary, we take women and men from all kinds of cancers, and we range from your late 20s to your mid-80s,” she said.
Butler explained that the entire experience is different than other types of boating sports. “The dragon boat is a 40-foot-long fiberglass canoe and it seats 20 paddlers. It has a drummer at the front of the boat beating the cadence for the crew and a steerer in the back,” she said.
She added that typically the paddlers stick to one side of the boat, and generally she paddles on the right side. Other than the drummer, and steerer, she said that she has been every other position on the boat between practice and competitions.
She added that the team has held a special place in her heart since she started back in 2015.
“The team is my number one cancer support system. I started with a learn to paddle class and I was so welcomed and loved by breast cancer supporters who really understood what I was going through, these people just get it like no other,” she said, “Being with them and being on the water is the most healing and rejuvenating feeling that one can have.”
Because of COVID-19, she said the team has been training via Zoom twice a week with all competitions cancelled for the year.
In a normal year, the team practices on the Connecticut River from May until October before moving into an indoor site to work on cardio and strength training for the rest of the year.
Butler added that people interested in joining the team can head to the team’s website at paradisecitydragons.org for more information.
Currently the team is training for the International Breast Cancer Paddlers Commission Dragon Boat Festival in New Zealand in 2022.