Paul Henderson, Event Chair

Karen Johnson, Race Chair

Karen Johnson joined the sport as a team building activity with other City of Lethbridge employees in the first year of the festival, 2002, Dragn’ R Butz. Finding a new passion for the sport, Karen was instrumental in starting Team ID just after the 2003 festival in hopes of paddling through a longer season and travelling to other festivals.
Karen was assistant coach of Team ID for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2008, the Rotary Festival made a concerted effort to improve the skills of local dragon boaters and decided to “beef up” the training provided to the festival teams and Dave Hunt and Karen agreed to become Head Coaches. Karen has been the race chair of the ATB Financial Lethbridge Rotary Dragon Boat Festival since 2010.
Karen has completed the Level A of the National Coaching Certification Program, and obtained Dragon Boat Canada Community Coaching Certification and the Competitive Coaching Certification. She has taken Dragon Boat Canada Officiating Level One, Critical Eye Coaching sessions, and several paddling technique workshops. Karen has attended Dragon Boat Conferences in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Karen has officiated in Lethbridge, Edmonton, Vancouver and Regina. She has paddled in Kelowna, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, and Elkwater, in the World Masters Games in New Zealand, and the Pan Pacific Masters Games in Queensland Australia, Pickering Dragon Boat Club Paddle camp (Tampa), and Pan Am International Festival (Tampa) . Karen is the Vice President for the Dragon Boat Association of Southern Alberta, and one of the coaches for the Coulee Classic Dragon Masters Womens crew.

Chris McLean, Festival Chair

Chris has been on the Dragon Boat Committee since 2004 and has all the t-shirts to prove it! She has been Treasurer, Chair, Secretary, and Site Manager, and helped at the equipment trailer for practices for several years. She has seen the festival grow from the initial 16 teams to over 65 teams. She has also seen the festival grow from local and southern Alberta teams, to inter-provincial with teams from Saskatchewan and British Columbia, and now International with a team from Montana. Chris enjoys the excitement and fellowship of the Festival but does not care to get wet. Chris is a member of the Rotary Club of Lethbridge East and is proud of the work that Rotary does both locally and internationally with the proceeds raised by the festival.

Anna Lozoya, Treasurer

Ana is the Treasurer for the Lethbridge Dragon Boat Festival. As the Treasurer, she tracks the income and expenses for all festival activities, and provides guidance to the Festival Organizing Committee and Executive.

Valerie McQuaid, Entertainment Chair

Valerie has been helping book the entertainment for the Dragon Boat Festival for the last 10 years and is excited to be back planning this year. She books all the entertainment and creates the line up for the weekend, connecting with bands and entertainment from all over southern Alberta. Valerie started volunteering with Brian and Jill to help with the entertainment planning ten years ago, and the excitement and community of the festival encouraged her to continue with the festival over the years.