The North Shore Dragon Busters are a team of dragon boat paddlers who are all breast cancer survivors.
This year, as they did last year, they will decorate a tree at Dundarave Beach as part of the annual Forest of Miracles.
Spokesman Michael Markwick says it’s really moving to watch a group like the Dragon Busters use arts and crafts to decorate their tree.
“They always tell a story,” he notes. “And it’s a story of survival.” It is also a tribute to members who have passed away.
The paddling team is just one of dozens of individuals, families, businesses, and community groups who buy a tree each year in the “forest” and decorate it. Participants pay a festival fee that allows organizers to source the trees, get them in the ground, and get them powered up. Participants then make a donation of $250 or more that goes directly to the Lookout Emergency Aid Society’s shelter in Lower Lonsdale. Participants boost their donations by crowd-sourcing with pledge pages.
Markwick has been involved with the Dundarave festival since 2008. He came on board to help de-velop a new business plan just as the world economy was in a serious slump. At the time, he thought because the economy wasn’t in good shape, the festival would maybe get some money for socks and blankets. But the community responded powerfully and they raised $25,000 in donations that went directly to the shelter.
Since then, the festival has crested over $35,000 per year, with a total of $150,000 raised since 2008.
“What that’s bought is a doubling of the transitional support services at the North Shore shelter,” explains Markwick. “We’re dealing with the immediate need pretty well, but we can also be advocates for better housing security on the North Shore and that’s the other part of it (the festival): opening a safe space for us as a community to have that conversation”
The trees themselves are a beautiful art installation, he adds.
“There’s less obvious self-promotion happening with the trees and instead what’s happening with the trees is they become art installations of their own.”
He says the people who purchase and decorate trees for the Forest of Miracles are as diverse as the community.
“What we’re really noticing, and it’s so heartwarming, is more and more families coming in and doing their own thing,” he says, adding he leans on the word “miracle” because “it is, it’s true, we’ve seen lives transformed.”
Visitors to the Forest of Miracles are welcome to make donations of cash or items for the shelter on site. And on the four Saturdays leading up to Christmas, there will also be a representative from the shelter on site to answer questions.
Starting this weekend, there will be also be free concerts at Dundarave Beach that Markwick says are all thematically different.
This Saturday, Nov. 28, is decorating day when the trees will be adorned, and the mayor and council are expected at a light-up event that starts at dusk.
Dec. 5 will feature a Nativity and Paddle Song event (from noon to dusk) that will include recognition of unceded Coast Salish territory. There will also be a life-sized nativity carving blessed by Squamish elders.
“It’s really moving, very intimate,” says Markwick.
Dec. 12 will feature a World Christmas concert, and the festival will culminate in the annual Dundarave beach bonfire on Dec. 19 that will be lit at dusk (the event starts at 2 p.m.). The bonfire is presented by the District of West Vancouver.
“That’s a huge party and again this year we expect Santa to be there,” says Markwick.
Each year, Santa arrives on the final night of the festival in an unexpected way. It has become something participants and visitors look forward to each year.
“We try to present Christmas as people haven’t seen it before, so you’re not going to see Frosty the Snowman and stuff like that, but you are going to really connect with ancient traditions of the season, and, yeah, you’re going to see a Grinch,” says Markwick.
For more information visit dundaravefestival.com.
