Mission & Impact
Your life gets better when you join Dragonheart Vermont. That's not a tagline. It's what our members tell us, season after season. Whether you're a cancer survivor finding your way back to strength or a supporter who showed up for a friend and stayed for the team, this club changes people.
Our Mission
Dragonheart Vermont strives to strengthen and empower breast cancer survivors and supporters through the challenging sport of dragon boating, instilling in its members the values of teamwork, fitness, and community giving.
What We Believe
We believe in the power of teamwork, and in what happens when breast cancer survivors and supporters work side by side.
Our members become healthier, more fit, more community-minded, and more connected through dragon boating. That's not an accident. It's what this sport does when you commit to it, and it's what this team does when you show up.
Dragonheart Vermont is built on five values:
-
Teamwork: Twenty paddlers in a boat, stroking in unison. Everything we do starts here.
-
Resilience: Our roots are in breast cancer survivorship. We know what it means to keep going.
-
Community: We show up for each other and for Vermont. On the water, at the festival, in the off-season.
-
Caring: This is a team that hugs. We take care of our people.
-
Support: Survivors and supporters, side by side. That's how we paddle and how we live.
The Impact of Breast Cancer Survivorship Through Sport
Dragon boating gives breast cancer survivors something that's hard to find after treatment: a reason to push your body, a team that understands, and a community that doesn't treat you like you're fragile.
Members come to Dragonheart Vermont for different reasons and stay for more than they expected. Some come for the fitness, dragon boating is a full-body workout that builds strength, endurance, and coordination. Some come for the friendships. Some come because a friend dragged them down to the dock and they never left.
What holds everyone together is this: the sport asks you to work as a team. Not metaphorically. Literally — twenty people stroking at the same time, or the boat doesn't move. That changes how you see yourself and how you show up for the people around you.
And if you aren't a cancer survivor today, being part of this community means that if you ever face a diagnosis, you already have a foundation of strength and a new family as your support network.
Over $1 Million Raised for Vermont Cancer Survivors
Since launching the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival in 2006, Dragonheart Vermont has raised and donated well over $1 million to cancer-related organizations in our community.
One hundred percent of festival donations stay local. Every dollar goes to Vermont cancer survivors through Dragonheart Vermont's programming and our annual pledge partners.
Where the money goes:
The festival has supported organizations including:
-
Sail Beyond Cancer VT: sailing experiences for patients and families on Lake Champlain (2025 pledge partner)
-
Cancer Patient Support Foundation: emergency financial assistance for Vermont cancer patients (pledge partner in 2021, 2022 and 2026)
-
UVM Osher Center for Integrated Health: integrative health programs for cancer patients (pledge partner in 2018, 2020, and 2024)
-
McClure Miller Respite House: Vermont's only Medicare-certified inpatient hospice residence, providing compassionate end-of-life care in Colchester (pledge partner in 2019 and 2023)
-
Community infrastructure: Dragonheart Vermont replaced the docks at Burlington's Community Boat Launch and added an adaptive kayak launch, serving the entire city
In 2025, we launched a new initiative to reduce the cost of membership for breast cancer survivors, bringing annual dues from $300 down to $100, with free membership for Stage 4 metastatic survivors. Thanks to sponsors and individual donors, the campaign surpassed its $12,000 goal, making the team more accessible than ever.
Board of Directors
Dragonheart Vermont is guided by a volunteer board of directors who keep the organization focused on its mission and accountable to its community.
What Members and Partners Say
More Than Medals — What This Team Really Does
The numbers matter. Over $1 million raised. Twenty years of paddling. More than two hundred members strong. But the impact that's hardest to measure is the one that matters most to the people who live it.
It's the survivor who wasn't sure they could get back on the water — and then raced at nationals. It's the supporter who came for a friend and found a second family. It's the paddler who times her treatment around practice because this team is where she feels most like herself.
That's what Dragonheart Vermont does. That's what it's always done.
Join the Club Donate Now Learn About the Festival