 The Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival is always a big deal, but one group in town is now making Dragon Boat Racing a summer long thing. Paddles up! Take it away! While many paddlers are just getting in the water for the first time this week, the First City Dragon Boat Club has been hard at work this summer and the past six years to grow the sport in Bemidji. We work with any individual or any given parts of any of the local teams realistically that are involved in the Dragon Boating, whether in the festival or not, we'll take out groups of people that have nothing to do with the festival. While improving race times is a bonus, it's not the only goal of the club. We are trying to overall increase wellness, so Dragon Boating connotes physical activity and folks that want to get involved with Dragon Boating, get better with Dragon Boating after you become more physically fit. But don't just think of it as a workout. Not only is it good for you, it's a lot of fun, and it's not so much we're doing it because we're going to win. You don't win anymore. I mean you can win something in your head, but there's no money involved in it. It's because they just have fun doing it, and they see it as good for themselves too, the exercise. That fun culminates every year in the Bemidji Dragon Boat Festival, where members of the club get to show off their stuff. The Dragon Boat Festival is just an absolute hoot. I mean it's an all-day long event, I mean it's friends and people from different parts of Minnesota or Wisconsin, there's Canadians that come down, so there's a lot of camaraderie. There's also some very good competition between all the local teams and all the various cup divisions of course that there are in the Bemidji Festival. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.