Severe storms in the overnight hours of May 8 caused our beloved dragon boat, named Hope, to fly off the trailer where it is stored near Homer Lake. Upon its discovery the next morning, Coach Debi put out a call to the team – on Mother’s Day, no less – to assist in helping get the 900-pound boat back onto its trailer.

After a canceled 2020 season, the Prairie Dragon Paddlers are back on the water for 2021, thanks to a new Safety Plan of procedures and requirements implemented by the Board of Directors and vetted with local public health authorities.

Like most activities and plans amid the Covid-19 global pandemic, the 2020 PDP season was canceled. Not to be discouraged while being relegated to land, the team still found ways to stay active and connected.

The Daily Illini student newspaper at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign featured the Prairie Dragon Paddlers in this article by staff writer Gwyn Skiles in December 2020, revealing the camaraderie and support shared among the team members.

Paddlers and board members Pat Lacey and Marilyn Pollard packaged 128 hats for chemo patients. A friend of Marilyn’s sister, Ellen, knitted all of them, and PDP helped facilitate their donation to Christie Clinic’s Cancer Center in Champaign.

Each year, the Prairie Dragon Paddlers look forward to participating in a fundraising event hosted by one of their sponsors, Kirby Medical Center in Monticello.

The Prairie Dragon Paddlers Breast Cancer Research Fund was established in 2018 at the Cancer Center at Illinois on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Read more about the Prairie Dragon Paddlers in this article by Bridget Broihahn that was published in At Home in Central Illinois early on in PDP’s history.