The Solomons Dragon Boat Festival returns to the Patuxent River on Aug. 22 for its 10th anniversary, with organizers expecting up to 30 teams of paddlers to compete in a milestone year for one of Calvert County’s signature summer fundraisers.
Southern Maryland Community Resources, the Pomfret-based nonprofit that has run the festival since its founding, will open the week’s festivities with the traditional Dotting of the Eye Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 21, at 6 p.m., an ancient dragon boat racing custom in which participants dip brushes in red paint to “awaken” each boat before competition. Race day begins the following morning with an 8:30 a.m. opening ceremony, followed by heats on the river throughout the day alongside an expanded KidZone, a Vendor Village, food and entertainment, and a closing awards celebration. Admission to the festival itself is free, though some activities, including parts of the KidZone, carry separate fees.
All proceeds from the festival support SMCR’s programming for people with developmental differences across Southern Maryland. Founded in 2013, the nonprofit runs inclusive social, recreational and educational programs intended to help participants build confidence, develop life skills and take an active role in their communities. Bonnie Elward, SMCR’s founder, has said publicly that events like the dragon boat festival matter as much for visibility as for fundraising, giving the broader community a chance to recognize the abilities of people who are differently abled. Therese Thiedeman, the organization’s longtime program director, has similarly described the festival as “a major friend-raiser” as much as a fundraiser, one that introduces SMCR’s mission to people who might not otherwise encounter it.
The festival has grown substantially since its early years, when it drew around 19 to 20 competing teams; this year’s anticipated field of up to 30 teams would mark one of the event’s largest turnouts. Past participants have included local businesses, churches, civic groups and specialty teams — the Annapolis Dragon Boat Club, for instance, has fielded both a mixed community team and a breast cancer survivors division in recent years — alongside teams made up of SMCR members and their families. Each dragon boat crew typically includes 16 paddlers, a drummer to keep pace, and a trained steersperson, racing head-to-head on the Patuxent along the Solomons Island Riverwalk near Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish.
Dragon boat racing itself traces back more than two thousand years to southern China, where the sport grew out of a folk tradition honoring a poet-official who drowned himself in protest of government corruption; as legend has it, local fishermen paddled out beating drums and striking the water with their oars in a failed effort to save him, a ritual re-enacted today in dragon boat festivals held around the world. Modern competitive dragon boating has since become an organized international sport, and community fundraising festivals like Solomons’ have become a common way for nonprofits to combine that tradition with local philanthropy.
Businesses and community groups can support this year’s festival by registering a team, becoming a sponsor, or volunteering during festival week or on race day itself; sponsors receive recognition through digital, print, social media and on-site promotion that organizers say extends well beyond race day. Community members who aren’t racing are encouraged to browse the Vendor Village, bring children to the KidZone, sample food from festival vendors and nearby island restaurants, and cheer on the competing teams from the riverfront.
Registration, sponsorship information and a full event schedule for the 10th anniversary festival are available at SolomonsDragonBoatFestival.com. More information about Southern Maryland Community Resources and its year-round programming is available at somdcr.org.
Over its first decade, the festival has become one of SMCR’s most important sources of annual revenue, with past events raising thousands of dollars in a single day toward the organization’s programs. Those funds have helped support a range of inclusive activities throughout the year beyond the festival itself, from social gatherings to skill-building programs designed to help participants with developmental differences engage more fully with their communities. Organizers say the milestone anniversary is meant to celebrate not just a decade of racing, but a decade of the partnerships between local businesses, civic groups and volunteers that have sustained the event and, by extension, SMCR’s mission.
