DB’s Dragon Boat race for Sense UK
For the first time, Design Bridge sent a team of tigers to compete in a Dragon Boat race to raise money for Sense, a national charity supporting adults and children who are born deaf and blind. A mix of ten volunteers rallied together. What we lacked in training, we made up for in fancy dress.
To enter the team had to raise £1000 so we organised our own fundraising events at Design Bridge. It took no time at all to organise a Jubilee lunch, film night and justgiving page, in fact it took far longer to think of a name. So, how to sum up our motley crew? We started with Bridge over troubled water, get it? Design-Bridge? Puns aside, we had to make sure our teamate Thibault wore the tiger suit he bought last Christmas- just so we could take photos. Our Group Creative Director Graham Shearsby came to the rescue, knighting us as the Tiki Tigers, inspired by an eclectic design of our own, Mahiki Coconut. That was all the excuse we needed, Thibault Tiger and his band of Tiki Tigers were ready to roar!
Image courtesy of Sense
Piling in to a cab we headed to the Docklands to meet 18 teams ranging from the Slackers to um, well, ’KPMG’.
We warmed up with a few swipes of face paint and a couple of beers before diving in to the first heat. Luckily there was an instructor on board to teach us how to paddle on the way to the start.
Did I mention we had no training? It was quite exhausting getting to the starting line, we had to cross the full length of the course. Still, when we lined up against the competition, we noticed they were dressed like ducks. As Thibault the Tiger reminded us, in the jungle tigers eat ducks…there was no way we were going to let them beat us!
Stirred by our shouts of “Harder! Faster! Deeper!” Lee beat the drum and we kept pace, accelerating even when our arms felt like fire. We really did pull together and roar like tigers, maybe that’s why the other boat backed off? Tigers aren’t domestic animals.
So what’s the result? I’ll let our cheeky Tiki Tiger tell you…
We may have destroyed the ducks but a few other teams sailed their way up the leader board. Our Tiki Tigers came eighth, trumped to victory by of all people, the Slackers! Well we had far too much fun to tuck our tail between our legs, so we celebrated with a BBQ and even more bottles of beer. A big thank you to everyone for generously sponsoring our team and giving the Tiki Tigers a chance to splash-in for a good cause. The best part was smashing our sponsorship target, so thanks to everyone who supported us we won after all.
In: Events, What are we up to? · Tags: charity race, Dragon Boat, fundraiser, Sense
on July 30, 2012 at 11:00 am
Permalink
Brilliant day with the Tikki Tigers!
For first timers we did really well and smashed our original time….we ended up 8th out of 18 participating teams so well done to all!