is what I promised in my last blog. I still am in awe of the Village Dragon boat crew members, especially after witnessing their races in Disney this past week-end, and was able to   gather a few more impressive facts that should interest our residents. They recently raced in Hong Kong China this past summer. The Villages was represented by two teams, one was a Standard boat team of 25 crew and one short boat team with 14 crew. How great is that, and I even have another bit of information to impress you with and that is three Village men qualified for the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Dragon Boat Team USA for the Milan, Italy world championships in Aug-Sept. 2012. The Village men were integrated into the Masters Competition racing in the 200M, 500M, and 2000M events with the masters standard and short boat men and mixed teams.  I’m sure none of them ever imagined the experiences they would have upon becoming a Villager.  I don’t think any of them thought I’m buying in The Villages because I want to go to China and Italy.  They could buy anywhere and still take a trip,  but I don’t know of any other place that would offer the opportunity to be accompanied by a dragon…boat that is.  Congratulations to all those that qualified and attended those races.  I’m not sure what criteria is used when picking a name for a team, but I’m sure there is great discussion as I think the name conjures up an attitude and that can be important when competing.  As I said previously the three Village teams in Orlando were the Silver Dragons, the Leatherneck Warriors and the Leathernecks.  Hearing those names gives you a general idea of who they are.  Many names gave you locations Windy City Thunder,  JAX Fire Dragons Chix with Stix, Philadelphia Flying Phoenix, the Capital Drakainas, Toronto Firefighters, Miami Dragon Slayers, Beltway Dragons, and the Charleston Firefighters to name a few.  Then there were the all woman teams which included a team of breast cancer survivors, which was very moving.  Some of their names were: Seas the Day, Kentucky Thoroughbreasts, Girls Gotta Row, Dragonborn Ladies, Bare Naked Bladies, Dragon Sisters United,  Bosom Buddies and Mammoglams.   Then there were the very descriptive names such as:  Geeks in the Creek, Insanity Rules, Team Insanity, Why Don’t We Get Drunk & Crew,  We’ll Have Another, Organized Chaos, Aquaholics Dragon Boat Club, Fire Breathing Bubbas and on the magical side:  Hope Floats, Magic Dragons and Disney Dragons.  Downtown Disney holds the Dragon Boat competition every year and I highly recommend you join the fun and cheer our teams on…we beat all the other teams and it would be fun to have the largest group of fans in attendance…I’m sure we could do that.  Stay tuned for next years date, and I’ll see you in the stands.