Dragon Boat Challenge Awards ceremony at the Mansion House

The Awards Ceremony for the 2025 York Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge was held at York Mansion House on Tuesday 7^th October.  We were delighted that the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of York joined us along with representatives of teams and charities benefitting from the event.  We were also joined by representatives of our event sponsors Portakabin, Reed Boardall and Simpson (York) Ltd, their support as always was vital to the running of the event.

Brian Joscelyne, joint Dragon Boat team leader, updated us about the financial success of the event.  The team sponsorship raised £108,000 and with other income the total raised was £113,000, taking the total raised over 22 years to a fantastic total of £1.7m.  This has been the most successful event to date in financial terms.

Several teams raised over £4,000 and an award was presented to Hunters and their team Canoe Believe It who were the highest fundraisers raising £7,566. The award for best dressed team was presented Team Dragonflies who had impressed with the very imaginative and colourful costumes they had made.

The much sought after Tailenders trophy for the slowest team was presented to St Leonard’s Hospice, Ruby Rowers.

The Challenge Trophy which was presented to Three Bears Foundation who were new entrants to the Dragon Boat Challenge.

Citizens Advice York one of the York Rotary nominated charities was presented with £18,012.  Fiona McCulloch, CEO of Citizens Advice explained how important the proceeds will be to their ongoing work and in particular the Tang Hall Project.  For every £1 donated  a multiplier indicates that £11 will be saved for local people via the work of York Citizens Advice, based on the amount raised that the benefit to the community via Citizens Advice will equate to approximately £210,000, before taking into account the added impact of debt relief.

The other nominated charity is the York Rotary charity fund who also have £18,012 and they have already started distributing that to a number of very worthy local charities.

The 24th Dragon Boat Challenge is planned for 2026 and the nominated charities were announced as being Survive and also the York Rotary Charity Fund.  Mags Godderidge, CEO of Survive, spoke and she explained the importance of the funding and how the funds will be used.  Survive are a York based charity and they provide much needed support to survivors of rape, sexual assault or child sexual abuse.

Finally a payment was presented to the Lord Mayor for the Lord Mayor and Sheriff charities, following which the Lord Mayor very enthusiastically talked about the importance of charity fundraising.  The Lord Mayor had clearly enjoyed attending the Dragon Boat Challenge and considered it a highlight of the civic year so far.  We thank the Lord Mayor and Civic Party for their support and hospitality in inviting us to the Mansion House for the Awards Evening.

To hear more about what the Lord Mayor and others said click on the link below to watch a short video of the evening.

Planning now starts for the 2026 event to be held on Sunday 12th July when we hope we will again have a full complement of 36 competing teams.

David Fotheringham