An invitation for you to join Rowbust!
If you have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer, you may be interested in moving on with your life, by joining our breast cancer survivor dragon boat racing team “Rowbust”. We encourage new members to join our team, as they are the lifeblood of our organization.
It is an exhilarating experience to participate in a dragon boat festival. Many of our members thrive on the well-being and improved fitness level that they achieve as a part of this team. Others enjoy the social aspects of the team and like the fact that they have contact with over sixty other breast cancer survivors that are literally “in the same boat” after a cancer diagnosis. We also have several members who are very active in promoting our message to the community as participants in various committees and activities such as Run for the Cure, Braz for the Cause, etc.
Dragon boat racing is a team sport that consists of 20 paddlers in one boat, a stern at the back and a drummer at the front. We train on the water as members of Fanshawe Yacht Club at Fanshawe Lake from May to October (Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings). The GoodLife Fitness Centres is our major sponsor as of 2022 and provides our paddling members with a free gym membership during our off-season. We train as a team twice a week from November to the end of April at The GoodLife Southdale & Wellington. During our off-season, we meet on Wednesday evenings as a team for circuit training. Saturday mornings, we train poolside to perfect our paddling technique and then complete the session with core strengthening exercises.
Team members use The GoodLife membership during the week to further improve their physical fitness level.
You are welcome to join as an associate member (not yet training, not yet paddling) for $20 at any time during the year. We will add you to our e-mail list and you will be kept abreast of all our activities. You are encouraged to join a Rowbust committee of your interest and get involved in our team. Best of all, you get to attend all of our fantastic “potluck gatherings” and have contact with all of our members.
If you are interested in becoming a paddling member, we encourage you to contact us at paddlerowbust@gmail.com. We will make sure you get an invitation to join us in the boat for a few weeks of fall paddling at no charge or obligation – just to see what it’s like. Also, we will let you know which local festivals we will be participating in so that you can come out to meet our team.
We accept all new paddling members starting in November, with the deadline to join at the end of January. This ensures that our new members get several months of land training before training on the water. To help ensure the health and well-being of all of our new members, we require that all new paddling members be out of active cancer treatment for three months before working out with our team.
The cost to join Rowbust is currently $150.00 per year for a full paddling membership. There is also a confidential bursary fund available for breast cancer survivors who have met our criteria but may be experiencing financial burden.
We encourage you to consider becoming a member of our team. The team is empowering, will give you some great contacts with others who have been through the same cancer journey as you, and will encourage you to make some major changes in your life with regard to physical fitness and positive thinking. No matter what level of participation you are interested in, there is a spot for you in our organization!
Paddles Up!