Colorado Dragon Boat Festival:
Coalescing Colorado’s Asian Pacific American Communities

By John Chin, Ding Wen Hsu and Howie Solow

The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF) has become, in a few short years, the most recognized and celebrated Asian American/Pacific Islander cultural event in the Rocky Mountain region. From an audience of 15,000 in its first year, 2001, the Festival has grown to over 100,000 spectators from Colorado Dragon Boat Festivalthroughout the region. Since inception, it has received many accolades and awards. For example, Westword anointed the Festival “Best New Festival” of 2001. The Rocky Mountain News called it the “Best City Festival” in 2003. And, in 2007, 5280 magazine describes Dragon Boat as “One of Colorado’s greatest festivals…”

In the past, there have been a number of Asian Pacific American festivals and other celebrations in the Denver metro area, but none with the scope and scale of CDBF. The Aurora Asian/Pacific Community Partnership with partners Denver Film Society and the City of Aurora hosted the Aurora Asian Film Festival, a showcase for recent theatrical films with Asian themes for many years. The film festival is currently on hiatus. The Asian Pacific Development Center mounted Passport to Asia which included Asian American entertainments and vendors. At its peak, Passport to Asia drew 10,000 The Cherry Blossom Festival at Sakura Square has been a Denver tradition for over 35 years. Sponsored by Tri-State/Denver Buddhist Temple, the still-thriving Cherry Blossom Festival draws 25,000 spectators to celebrate Japanese-American culture, food, music, dance, arts and crafts.

Planning for a dragon boat festival began in 2000. Ding Wen Hsu, then president of the Chinese American Council of Colorado, had heard that John Chin, then president of the Denver Chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, was working with Howie Solow, founder and chief instructor of the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association, on developing a dragon boat festival in Denver. She contacted John Chin to discuss collaboration as she was interested in doing such a festival.

Chin and Solow had worked together producing a number of successful cultural events. Solow wanted to hold a dragon boat festival in Colorado. He had participated in dragon boat racing festivals in the New York City and felt that such a festival would be very successful in Denver. Chin and Solow had investigated the possibilities of a festival as early as 1995 but with limited success. The collaboration of Chin, Hsu and Solow and their respective organizations established the critical mass needed to make the Festival a reality.

When the three festival founders met, they found that they shared a common festival vision. All three believed that the festival should be a Pan-Asian event celebrating all of Colorado’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Moreover, they felt that the festival needed to be “community-owned” with local AAPI communities guiding the goals and direction of the festival. They also envisioned three key elements as fundamental to the success of the festival: dragon boat racing using traditional dragon boats; an entertainment stage featuring local Asian Pacific American groups; and a marketplace with the foods, crafts and other merchandise of local AAPI businesses.

While Chin, Hsu and Solow each had some experience in planning and executing special events, they recognized that they needed a strong team to realize a festival of the scale and scope that they envisioned. They formed a Steering Committee to oversee the myriad of festival details. Each member of the Steering Committee was a long-standing community volunteer in the Asian Pacific American communities. One of the first tasks that the founders undertook was to reach out to the local APA communities to garner their support for the festival. Meetings with community leaders stressed that the festival organizers were stewards of the festival for the community. The festival concept was generally well-received albeit not without skepticsand received numerous expressions of endorsement and support. CDBF was also incorporated as a non-profit organization in 2001.

From its inaugural year, the Festival has been a success. In 2001, festival organizers privately hoped for an attendance of 3,000. Crowd estimates by the Denver Department of Public Safety was 15,000. Attendance reached 30,000 in the second year. And, spectators have continued to grow as the Festival becomes better known. The Festival has also been a success in other ways. It is often cited as a successful model for Asian Pacific American community cooperation and collaboration. The Festival’s Honorary Chair is a coveted position honoring an APA community leader who is an outstanding role model. The Festival continues to improve existing elements to increase spectator enjoyment.

Additionally, it consistently adds new elements intended to entice previous spectators to return while attracting new spectators to attend. 2007’s Cultural Unity – a hip-hop venue – and Explore Asia – an in-depth exploration of Filipino, Mongolian and Hmong cultures – were instantly popular. In 2008, the Festival will enter the international ranks of dragon boat racing as CDBF will host the American Dragon Boat Association international competition.

Over the years, CDBF continued to rely on an all-volunteer Steering Committee –now called the Operations Committee –to plan and execute the Festival. In late 2003, the three founders felt that the CDBF organization needed to evolve so that CDBF remained agile and responsive and to ensure the sustainability of the Festival. The Festival’s increasing sophistication and complexity necessitated year-round planning. The Operations Committee could only focus, as a result, on the Festival details. Long-range planning, sustainability and other fundamental concerns received only minimal attention. Moreover, festival organizers envisioned other opportunities for the Festival to promote cultural awareness and education. At an all-day retreat, it was recognized that there were, in fact, two critical parts of the Festival. There was the Festival as an annual event and there was a Festival organization. It was decided at the retreat that the CDBF organization would be made up of two parts. A Board of Directors would provide strategic direction and governance for the Festival. The Board would also be involved in CDBF fundraising. The Operations Committee would focus on executing the Festival. This structure allowed for CDBF to, not only, put on the Festival, but also begin working on other strategic initiatives that would foster CDBF’s continued success and stability. Another key organizational change was the use of part-time contractors – specialists in Festival operations, e.g. logistics, volunteers, marketing, and corporate sponsorship – to supplement the work of the volunteers on the Operations Committee.

CDBF has been driven by a set of vision, mission and values statements that have been consistent since its inception. These statements, particularly those concerning values, provide a context for all strategic and operational decisions made. The statements are as follows:

Vision. The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF) will be recognized as the premier organization celebrating and promoting the culture, contributions and accomplishments of Colorado’s Asian Pacific American communities.

Mission. The mission of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is to build bridges of awareness, knowledge and understanding between the diverse Asian Pacific American (APA) communities and the general public through cultural education, leadership development, and athletic competition.

Values

In 2007, CDBF hired a full-time Executive Director, Alisa Zimmerman, to oversee the Festival organization and day-to-day operations. Previously, Zimmerman was the Cultural Affairs Manager for the City and County of Broomfield. She was also well-versed in business operations, economic development, marketing and performing arts management.

With Zimmerman’s hiring, the Festival is now poised to work on key strategic initiatives. Over the next three years, CDBF will continue to evolve and grow in keeping with its vision, mission and values. A critical initiative is expanding the Festival’s infrastructure and financial base. Promising opportunities include national corporate sponsorships, foundation support, other revenue streams, and philanthropic efforts. Another now-possible endeavor for CDBF is educational outreach. Education is an integral element of the CDBF vision and mission. Festival organizers have also long-considered other events, such as an Asian New Year Celebration, that can draw general and APA populations.

As the Festival enters its eighth year, the Festival, as an event and as an organization, is undergoing fundamental change. Key individuals who have been with the Festival for most, if not all, of its growth and evolution are leaving or planning on leaving. As the Festival continues to grow in size and scope, the financial pressures increase dramatically. Growth also means that the Festival struggles with staying true to its vision, mission and values. At the same time, the foundations of the Festival are solid and the Festival will continue to be an important APA presence.

 

About the Authors:

John Chin retired as the Chief Academic Officer at Front Range Community College in 2004. He is still active in higher education as a consultant. John recently completed three years as the founding chair of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival Board of Directors. A lifelong community volunteer, he currently volunteers as vice chair of the board of directors at the Asian Pacific Development Center; board member of the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association; chair-elect, Community Relations Council at the Denver Center for Performing Arts; member, President’s Community Advisory Council at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and interim chair, Business Advisory Council, Denver March Pow Wow.

Ding-Wen Hsu is co-owner and Chair of Board of Directors of Pacific Western Technologies Ltd. (PWT) in Denver, Colorado. PWT specializes in information management, and environmental management. Currently, PWT employs over 100 employees in Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Tennessee, and California. Hsu, a native of Taiwan, has been very active in the Asian and Chinese American communities in Denver since she moved to Colorado in 1978. Currently, she is the chair of Boar of Directors of Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, the largest Asian American annual event in Colorado.
Howie Solow is the President and Board Chair of the Academy of Chinese Martial and Cultural Arts and Chief Instructor for the Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu Association. SHMKF has been a fixture in the Denver metro APA community for over 13 years performing at the area’s major cultural events including Asian New Year celebration at the Far East Center; Colorado Dragon Boat Festival; and Parade of Lights. Howie is Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Peak Pilates in Boulder, Colorado, where he designs and manufactures Pilates exercise equipment.

For more information on the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, go to http://www.cdbf.org. Or contact Alisa Zimmerman at zimmaj@comcast.net or (720) 524-7221

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Notes on photographs (in order of appearance in article):

  1. A race at the 2003 Festival.
  2. Crowds along shore at 2003 Festival
  3. Eye-dotting Ceremony at 2007 Festival
  4. Howie Solow, John Chin and Ding Wen Hsu with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper
  5. The 2001 Steering Committee with (standing from left) Karen Nakandakare, Hong Wilkins, Patty Quinn, Mary Lee Chin, Ding Wen Hsu, Erin Yoshimura, Joanne Tabellija, (bottom row from left) Gil Asakawa, True Nguyen, John Chin and Howie Solow.
  6. Alisa Zimmerman with daughter Mimi at 2007 Festival.

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