Shuswap Dragon Boat Society - Friends Abreast

As we start our 2025 paddling season, here is what we have done so far this year and also a few things to look forward to.
March & April
Our Social committee, headed up by Linda Wesley continue to find fun ways to celebrate our birthday month. March 17th saw a group going to Ricochet Tap House for lunch.
March 29th we had a stall at the farmers market in Salmon Arm to share information about our club, and we had several people sign up for more info and possible membership.
Our usual dryland training took place at Blackburn Park and started on April 15th and continued until our boat went into the water on May12th. Our coach, Dorothea Hench, provided us with Therabands and had worked out a training regime for us,  with many members taking advantage of it and 2 new members.  Thank you to Dorothea for working on this over the winter months..  
We had our AGM and Annual General Meeting on Sunday, April 13th, held at the Salmon Arm Lawn Bowling Club – always a nice location!  We were all relieved that Margaret Hinchliff has agreed to another 2 year term as President, and we were pleased to welcome Leanne Brintnell, Linda Wesley, Gerda Seitz and Mary Fabian to the Board.
May
The first outing in May was on the 3rd, and was a conducted tour of the Gleneden Garden Centre by Leanne Britnell where people saw and bought some beautiful plants at really good prices, followed by a coffee stop at Westgate Mall.
Our annual Garage sale was held in Centenoka Mall on May 10th, with all proceeds ($1468) going to team funds. Many thanks to Margaret and Liz for arranging this and making it such a good event, and also to Leanne for providing the beautiful flower baskets for the toonie draw.
As usual we had a great turnout to help load and launch the boat on May 12th, which included several spouses - many thanks to you all. 
Practises started on May 13th, with 20 people turning up plus our coach and steersperson. Dorothea took us through the safety guidelines prior to our practise.

And now to what we can look forward to :
May
We are off to Green Croft Gardens in Grinrod on May 21st (owned by the family of our steersperson Alex), followed by lunch at Ambrosia Greek restaurant in Salmon Arm.
June
On June 9th Maureen Rettie will be hosting a Welcome to the Season potluck at her home again this year.
June 14th is the day of our Salmon Arm festival, in which we are expecting to compete.
 July
July 19th is the Vernon festival, that we won't be attending this year, although if you are interested in going contact Margaret Hinchliff and she will hook you up with the organisers and hopefully you can join another team.
 August
August 9th is the Kamloops festival, that we hope to attend.
September
Probably a windup social somewhere TBA.
October
Well this is the exciting one!  This year we are going even bigger and even better with the Breast Cancer awareness campaign.  The theme again is "Dress the Town Pink", and again we will be selling commemorative ribbons to tie on the wharf.
November
Book sale.
December
Annual Christmas party.

 Note:  For all the above events, one can go to Gallery link on the friendsabreast.com website.  There you will find a more detailed account. Also, the homeslide show will show photos of the various events.  
 
 
 Membership Information
We welcome new paddlers – survivors and supporters alike. No experience necessary – we will teach you to paddle.

If you are interested in joining the Shuswap Dragon Boat Society, either as a Paddling Team Member or Friend of the Boat, please email us at friendsabreast@gmail.com and complete our membership waiver form  userfiles/file/revised%20membership%20form/NEW%20MEMBERSHIPWAIVER%20FORM%20JANETS%20FILES.pdfand and review our safety guidelines.  userfiles/file/SDBS%20Safety%20Guidelines.pdf