From testing their physical limits behind the oar in a dragon boat to sitting around a table at Sorrentino’s Compassion House taking guests through simple crafts, for volunteers Val and Charlene, it’s all about community.
The two women are part of the Breast Friends Dragon Boat Racing team, which also volunteers monthly at Compassion House, leading craft projects. The two activities are far apart on the physical endurance spectrum, but they both represent important ways for cancer patients to reclaim their lives during and after treatment.
Charlene describes time on the dragon boat as an opportunity to build new confidence in her body after a devastating diagnosis and difficult treatment. “The cancer starts defining you a bit,” she explained. But on the boat, Charlene became the proverbial boss of herself.
It’s a feeling Val echoes. “I thought, ‘well, I’ll just have to be a couch potato, because I’ll never get back to whatever.’ So being on the boat is one way of getting back in shape and blowing that notion out of the water.”
Charlene was first introduced to Compassion House years ago, when her Fort McMurray friend stayed here while receiving cancer treatment. Now, when Charlene returns to the House as a volunteer, it offers a way to feel closer to her friend. “I know which room she was in, and sometimes I go back up those stairs and sit outside that room on a little chair.”
The Breast Friends keep the craft activities simple. In a calendar year, they make cards, paint birdhouses, or bring in diamond painting kits. The focus is on soothing, peaceful activities so that the houseguests, who are often tired from their treatments, can feel no-pressure camaraderie with each other.
The dragon boat team’s presence is, by itself, also a source of encouragement to Compassion House residents. Charlene remembers a woman thanking them for coming because it showed her the possibility of her own post-cancer life.
“It’s that power of community,” Val says. “It can happen with 22 people in a dragon boat and it can happen with five people around a table.”
