WELLNESS WARRIORS INC

The Wellness Warriors is Massachusetts' first dragon boat team for cancer survivors. We provide a paddling support group for men and women of all ages diagnosed with many different types of cancer. The goal for our members is to rise to the physical challenges of dragon boat paddling and thus improve their overall health and well being in the setting of a peer-support program.

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Network's Survivorship Workgroup recently included in its Wellness Guide for Cancer Survivors a model of 6 dimensions of wellness (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, thinking, working) important to the quality of life of the cancer survivor. Dragon boating is highlighted as a form of exercise that helps improve physical, emotional, and social dimensions of cancer survivorship. Dragon boat paddling is a team water sport involving a canoe-like boat that holds 22 people and has been well established as a sport linked to improved quality of life and decreased morbidity in breast cancer survivorship and to greater adherence to recommended exercise among all cancer survivors. We provide year round practice opportunities to improve one's dragon boating skill as well as overall exercise capacity. As well, Wellness Warriors paddlers participate in 6-7 races per season where they are able to compete and celebrate with other cancer survivors from all across the Northeast and Canada.

We started as a small team in 2005 as part of a larger organization and within a short few years grew to the point of being able to form our own independent not for profit organization in 2009 serving hundreds of cancer survivors in the Boston area. We officially took on the team name Wellness Warriors in 2007. We celebrated our 10th year anniversary in 2017 and in the past 10 years we have grown from a small group of 6 people coming together for one community race to a team of 70-80 paddlers annually with twice weekly on-water practices and off-season exercise programs. Our outreach extends to academic and community health centers throughout the greater Boston area. Our hope is that all local cancer survivors know about our “floating support group" and have the opportunity to join. Through our corporate partnerships and fundraising we have been able to grow our infrastructure (boats, PFDs, etc) as well as the depth and breadth of training opportunities for the paddlers. We have partnered with other local survivorship programs (e.g. Friends of Mel, WeCanRow, First Descents) to increase awareness of the benefit of active exercise support groups. Our Board of Directors and Executive Committee meet regularly to assure we meet our goals. Extensive member derived workgroups (fundraising, training/mentoring, PR, recruitment) assure that we continue to expand sustainably.

We have served well over a 100 cancer survivors over the years. We consistently recruit and retain members with half of our members belonging for 5 or more years. We have consistently expanded with new boats, practice opportunities, and off season activities in order to serve more members. We are dedicated to continuous improvement and on our last member survey 100% of our respondents were very to extremely satisfied with the program. We have been honored over the years locally with media attention and awards. Here are a few of those: Jim Baptiste, Director of Marketing for Matter Communications nominated us for an award as one of the 2011 MGH The One Hundred https://www.theonehundred.org/honorees/the-wellness-warriors/. In 2012 the City of Cambridge issued a special Resolution honoring Wellness Warriors in celebration of our new donated dragon boat. In 2015 we were featured in The Massachusetts Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Network's Survivorship Workgroup Wellness Guide for Cancer Survivors. In 2016 the City of San Francisco issued Wellness Warriors a Certificate of Honor for exemplary leadership, outstanding community service, and significant contribution to preserving Asian culture. In 2017 the Asian Cultural Center and Hua+ TV featured the Wellness Warriors in a mini documentary. In 2018 we welcomed a new boat to allow us to provide practice time to a greater number of cancer survivors. In 2019 we won a berth at the international Club Crews World Championships for cancer survivors. Despite the challenges of the pandemic we have pivoted in 2020 to virtual training and challenges to encourage cancer survivors to stay active and build strength. After a hybrid year in 2021 with on the water practices but no racing, we are thrilled to take advantage of lulls in covid prevalence to return to our typical programming. In 2022 we plan to resume all in person activities with a covid safety plan responsive to current infectivity challenges.