About Us

The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is a yearly highlight of the Ottawa festival season. With dozens of race teams, tens of thousands of visitors, and numerous multi-cultural activities, the Festival provides the city with an exciting annual event that offers something for everyone.

Our Mission

"To each year deliver a first class dragon boat race festival accessible to all that brings together and gives back to our diverse community through team building, and a cross cultural experience that is fun for everyone."

Tradition

The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is part of a larger Chinese cultural tradition that goes back 2,400 years. It began on the life-sustaining riverbanks in the valleys of southern China as a fertility rite performed to ensure bountiful crops. The first participants held their celebration on the fifth day of the lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The race was held to avert misfortune and encourage the rains needed for prosperity. The object of their worship was the dragon.

Also known as Poet's Day, it commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet and Minister of State during the Chou Dynasty. Qu had protested against the corrupt government and was stripped of his office as Minister of State. He wandered about the countryside, unhappy and dejected. When local fishermen realized Qu had disappeared into the river, they raced out in their boats to save him, beating drums to scare off the fish that they thought would eat his body. They also dropped rice dumplings in the water as a sacrifice to his spirit. The scene of the fishermen racing out to save Qu Yuan is reenacted every year in the form of dragon boat races.

Festival History

The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival began in 1993 with the assistance of the Hong Kong Canada Business Association. The first event only lasted half a day as there were only 25 teams participating. This little known sport eventually grew to be one of the hottest sporting events in the Nation's Capital and around the world.

By 2007, the sport - which once featured only 25 teams - had 190 teams participating in both corporate and community categories over two days, making the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival the largest dragon boat festival in North America.

In 1998 a charitable component was added to the festival. Since the festival brings together people from around our great community (and country), it was decided that we should do as much as possible to give back to the community. So in 1998, the "Pledge Challenge" was instituted and to date our paddlers have raised $1,800,000 for 24 local charities. In 2003 the "Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation" was established to help focus and grow the fundraising efforts for the annual pledge campaign associated with the Festival. The Foundation is a charitable organization.

For more information on the Foundation and the Pledge Challenge click here.

Board of Directors

Martin Vervoort - Festival Chair
Residential and Commercial Real Estate Lawyer, Maclaren Corlett

Sandy Foote - Past Chair
Footeworks Inc.

Kevin Toop - Treasurer
Controller, Karson Construction

Warren Creates - Nomination Committee
Immigration Lawyer, Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall

John Edwards - Race Committee Chair
Domestic Development Director, Canadian Canoe Association

Michelle Lavoie - Foundation Chair 

Scott Seaby - Race Committee 

Jason Kelly - Sponsorship Committee
General Manager, Monterey Inn 

Borden Hum - Volunteer Committee

David Morrow - Volunteer Committee
President, MIRIDARO I.B.S. (2004) Inc.

Otto Heberlein - Sponsorship Committee

Lenore Gibson – Foundation Secretary
Director, Regulatory Affairs, CTVglobemedia Inc.

Paul Hindo – Foundation Director
Senior Vice President, Business Development, Cushman & Wakefield LePage

Richard Allison – Foundation Treasurer

Marc Charron – Foundation Director
Auditor, RCMP

Jason Vanderzwan – Foundation Director
Community Banking Manager, Scotiabank

Staff

John Brooman
Executive Director

Shelley Freake
Team Services Manager

Jennifer Mackiddie
Foundation/Pledge Coordinator

Mark Morrison
Logistics Manager/Entertainment Director

Leah Barton
Development Officer

Russel MacDonald
Special Events Assistant

Jessica Main
Volunteer Coordinator

Photographer

The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival is pleased to recognize Laurie Wierbicki as our official photographer. To contact Laurie please visit her website at www.lauriewierzbicki.com.