Participating Teams

Corporate Sponsor Teams

HKETO - Our Hong Kong Dragon Riders

Our Hong Kong Dragon Riders - the official dragon boat team of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office (HKETO) is most delighted to take part in the 28th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. This is the 14th consecutive year for the team, which comprises staff of HKETO and friends of Hong Kong. As the originator of the festival 28 years ago, the HKETO is proud to continue our support of this year's dragon boat festival, and we are committed to showcasing the dynamic, vibrant, and multi-dimensional Hong Kong at this annual event. We look forward to seeing you at the festival this year. For further information on HKETO, please visit http://www.hketony.gov.hk/ny/whatsnew.htm and follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hkmeetsamerica

HSBC

HSBC team comprises over 50+ employees and friends who train rigorously in the local waters around the Queens community. We look forward to exciting competitions alongside some of the strongest teams in the region. HSBC also welcomes the many new teams that will share in the festivities & competition for the first time. Listen for our rally call and look for us at the finish line!

New York Presbyterian - Queens RAD Dragons

"The New York Presbyterian - Queens RAD Dragons have competed in and sponsored the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival since 2001. This year's team of hospital employees is a combination of veterans who have paddled in the competition from the past and rookies who are participating in the festival for the fist time. The team is comprised of both men and women who represent a number of departments throughout the hospital. Promoting diversity and culture has always been key to the success of New York Presbyterian. The highly motivated team members look forward to uniting for this exciting annual event and displaying their commitment, drive, and strength on the water. The RAD Dragons are thrilled to represent New York Presbyterian - Queens and thrive on the support of the local Flushing community during the 2018 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival!"

Flushing Bank Dragons

The Flushing Bank Dragons team is excited to represent Flushing Bank in the 2018 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. This will be our fourth year participating and it has become one of our most highly anticipated events. This year our team consists of 39 Flushing Bank employees from the branch network and various business units, participating as paddlers and drummers. In addition to the boat races, we are also participating through our branded booth which has become a highly anticipated attraction at the Festival for our exciting giveaways and prizes, while allowing us to engage with visitors. Joining the Dragon Boat Festival has given us the opportunity to not only give back to the communities that we serve, but also to create stronger bonds with our coworkers. The Flushing Bank Dragons would like to extend our appreciation to our company and all of our teammates and their families for their support. Once again, we look forward to competing and proudly representing our bank!

Shanghai Commercial Bank

10 Corporate Sponsor Teams 11 Shanghai Commercial Bank has been competing in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York as a sponsor for many years. We are very excited to be part of the 2018 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York to celebrate their 28th Anniversary. Our racing team consists of SCB staff members and friends, and filled with vitality and dedication. We look forward to having lots of fun in the Festival and good luck to the team of Shanghai Commercial Bank and all of the 2018 Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival participants.

NYCB - Queens Dragons

New York Community Bank has been a part of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York since it began over 25 years ago, and we are very excited to be participating once again in 2018. This year's team is comprised of a diverse group of paddlers including NYCB employees, together with their friends and family members. Experienced or novice, young or mature, we enthusiastically embrace the spirit of teamwork as we support each other to achieve our goals of excellence, speed, and harmony. Win or lose - we don't "estop"! To learn more about our NYCB family - visit www.mynycb.com

Con Edison, Electric Dragons

The Electric Dragons are comprised of 60 paddlers who work in a variety of departments throughout Con Edison. For 10 weeks, the team mentors high school students who serve as youth team members. Crew members share their technical paddling skills, their understanding of the history and culture of dragon boat racing, and knowledge of the importance of environmental excellence in the community. We are proud to compete for the 19th year in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival.

Cathay Bank

Cathay Bank has been a sponsor of the Dragon Boat Festival for many years. The bank has always been an active participant in the event and prides itself on giving back to the community. Cathay Bank has built a successful business based on providing excellent service to its primarily Chinese-American community. Cathay Bank is a subsidiary of Cathay General Bancorp (NASDAQ:CATY), a publicly held bank holding company which ranks #12 in Forbes 2018 Best Banks in America. Cathay Bank currently operates in 9 states with 65 branches as well as one branch in Hong Kong, a representative office in Taipei and in Shanghai. This year, Cathay Bank brings a team full of enthusiasm and excitement to the festival. The team has been working hard and is confident to bring home some trophies! Our goal is to build teamwork, comradery, be competitive, and most of all…Have Fun! Team Cathay will be participating in the Mixed, Corporate, Sponsor, and Charity races. Team members include Alex Lam(Manager), Jimmy Chen(Captain), Jimmy Lee(Co-Captain), Good Jean Lau(Steers/Coach), Gary Wong(Steers/Coach), Candy Zhang, Ken Wu, Jackson Zhao, Jiade Dai, Karen Kong, Rex Liu, Katherine Cai, Esther Wang, Roger Salguero, Michael Wong, Jeff Cui, Min Wang, Yuri Xu, Carmen Zhang, Leon Qian, Wu Chen, Denny Feng, Hannie Lew, and Vincent Lau. Best of luck to all the participants in this year's festival!

APEX of Verizon

Verizon is committed to fostering an inclusive environment. We care about diversity in both our employees and our suppliers. Diversity and inclusion is how we achieve success. Asian Pacific Employees for eXcellence (APEX) and Oath:'s ElevAsian are two of the many Employee Resource Groups at Verizon that are designed to promote advancement of employees to their full potential, while enabling every employee to make a valuable positive contribution to the Corporation and the Communities that we serve. The Verizon team has been part of many exciting races at the Flushing Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival for over twenty-five years. As a long standing Festival Sponsor in New York, Verizon is committed to supporting the Asian community.

FUSIA/CCIP Exchange Interns -- we're all in the same boat! 12 Meet this year's dragon boat racing team -- young, driven, and passionate CCIP (www.theccip.com) exchange interns sponsored by FUSIA Communications, a Designated Visa Sponsor of the US Department of State's Exchange Visitor Internship Program. Our group exemplifies the spirit of collaboration across cultures. Each student team member will wear a T-shirt with a colorful design and a slogan that highlights FUSIA's mission to build cultural bridges: "We're all in the same boat." The tagline celebrates diversity and teamwork. Taking FUSIA's motto to heart, the team sees this occasion as more than just a sports event. Triumphing over cultural barriers, FUSIA will take to the water in the spirit of goodwill, friendly competition, and sportsmanship.

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Participating Teams

Language Exchange & Social Network (ALESN)

Asian Language Exchange and Social Network (www.ALESN. org) is a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) charitable organization offering free language classes, culturally-specific workshops, and social networking opportunities in New York City. Team ALESN, in our fourth year competing in the HKDBF-NY, is proud to be sponsored once again by Diamond Hong (www.diamondhong. com), an importer of Kweichow Moutai and other premium Asian liquor brands.

Arizona Gila Dragons

In 2001, a diverse group of friends and families, with no dragon boating experience, was invited to compete in the Taipei International Dragon Boat Festival as part of the Phoenix Sister Cities Program. In 2002, a new group of paddlers made a repeat appearance. The paddlers fell in love with the sport and in the fall of 2002, the Arizona Gila Dragons was formed as Arizona's first dragon boating club. The team started off by sitting on the sides of pools and at Tempe Town Lake paddling on milk crates for practice, eventually moving onto real dragon boats generously donated by the City of Taipei, and then onto racing boats that were purchased by the AZDBA. With a love for fun and fierce competition, the team has competed in places such as Arizona, Long Beach, San Francisco, Hawaii, Laughlin, Denver, Las Vegas, Houston, Boston, Portland and Hong Kong. We look forward to future travels and to help grow the sport of dragon boating in Arizona! www.giladragons.org

Bank of America Hydra

Bank of America is a multinational financial institution focused on serving clients to help them live their financial lives. We bring a team of employees, friends and families who are excited about racing in the festival and staying fit this summer. With new energetic rowers and veterans ready to tackle the waters, we're back for our fifth year and ready to take home the gold medal.

Barath Boat Club

We are a US based non-profit club of sportsmen who enjoy boat racing. We also represent the highly competitive sport played in the Southern State of INDIA, Kerala. The sport is fondly called as ‘Vallam Kali' in that region, which is our own form of boat racing and the longest boat accommodating 100+ players. Our team participates in boat races organized by various organizations across USA.

Columbia EMPAroars

The Columbia EMPAroars are made up of students and families from the Executive Master of Public Administration program at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Balancing full-time jobs and studying for a master's degree, we are here to have a roaring good time, and paddle to a roaring success!

DCH Dragon Boat

DCH Dragon Boat Club is celebrating it's 26th season. The club is proudly sponsored by DCH Auto Group and Lithia Motors. DCH Dragon Boat Club was founded by Mr. Shau-Wai Lam in 1993 and originally began as an all men's crew. DCH has become a competitive dragon boat racing crew and has expanded Participating Teams 14 to include women and youth. DCH members range from age 12 to 50, all coming from a variety of backgrounds. DCH focuses on developing paddlers and uses dragon boat as the vehicle in developing leadership and teamwork with today's youth and young professionals. New and experienced paddlers are welcome to be a part of DCH Dragon Boat Club. Visit us at www.dchracing.com

Dragonflies

Watch out as We are back, bigger and stronger to start another exciting year of fierce fun and competition. Our diverse team believes in loud, bossy drummers, managers, a great steers person, bad karaoke, and lots of goofy fun. We would like to thank everyone who has been part of the DragonFlies' family, both past and present. Eric Alberts, a long time veteran of the Dragon boat races in New York City, founded this non-corporate, independent east coast based club in 2000.

Fierce Dragons

Fierce Dragons is a tenth year co-ed private dragon boat team made up of students, professionals, and enthusiasts from the New York City area. The team is dedicated to cultural diversity and strives to further promote the sport of dragon boating in the community. Fierce Dragons is a mixture of seasoned paddlers and newcomers working together to form a strong and united team. Teamwork, dedication and leadership have been the keystones of the team.

H2OMG

H2OMG is a NYC-based crew that loves the thrill of dragon boat racing and strives to share the fun and camaraderie with others. We're made up of family and friends that train hard together to stay in shape and perform our best at festival competitions. The team currently comprises a mix of about 20 male and female paddlers of varying ages and experience. Although our main focus is to train for our races, our team promotes an active lifestyle and encourages members to participate in other activities as well, including running, biking, hiking, and rafting. Our goal is to have as much fun as possible both on and off the boat!

Hong Kong Schools Alumni - HKSA

Hong Kong Schools Alumni was founded in 2014 by a group of Wah Yan College alumni from Hong Kong who are currently residing in New York area to participate the New York Dragon Boat Festival. Team members include alumni and alumnae of schools from Hong Kong, including Wah Yan College, LaSalle College, and St.Paul's Co-Educational College. Currently, we have more than five different Hong Kong schools on the team. The team is reuniting Hong Kong natives in New York through weekly practices and delicious dim sum lunch afterwards.

IPG Dragons

Participating Teams 15 Interpublic Group (IPG) is a global provider of marketing solutions. Through our 49,000 employees in all major world markets, our companies specialize in consumer advertising, digital marketing, communications planning and media buying, public relations and specialty marketing. This is the fifth year IPG is joining many of our clients in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York, and we are very excited to be part of this cultural festivity.

JLL "Fast and Furious"

The JLL "Fast and Furious" teams in the Heritage Mixed Division are looking forward to competing for the second time in the 28th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. We're proud to represent JLL. "On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit. And you then go for this limit and you touch this limit, and you think, ‘Okay, this is the limit'. And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high." - Ayrton Senna

JPMorgan Chase Dragon Boat Team

2018 represents JPMorgan Chase's 26th consecutive year in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York. The Team is made up of JPMorgan Chase employees, and their family and friends. Each year we strive to form competitive teams and this year is no exception. With renewed drive and dedication, this year's JPMorgan Chase Dragon Boat team hopes to recapture the rewards of its efforts. Leadership, diversity, and teamwork are among the core values not only at JPMorgan Chase but for our Dragon Boat team as well. It is a belief of JPMorgan Chase that everything makes us unique as individuals makes us all stronger as a team. As anyone who has raced in the festival knows, teamwork, above all else, is the cornerstone of Dragon Boat Racing. It is only as a team, we will reach our aspirations. Best of luck to all participants and we will see you at the finish line!

LaGuardia Redevelopment Program - The Flying Dragons

The LaGuardia Redevelopment Program team is excited to make its first appearance in this year's Dragonboat Festival! The team is working on the redeveloping LaGuardia Airport, earning the moniker "The Flying Dragons". From safety and security, to community outreach, to roads and bridges, these individuals have combined forces and became an unstoppable squad both at the airport and on the lake. The Project Executive, Richard Smyth, introduced us to the realm of Dragonboats. Since then, the team has been engaging their competitive spirit and have transformed into racing champions! The Flying Dragons have truly enjoyed this experience and love having the opportunity to participate in such an exciting adventure.

M.A.D.

M.A.D is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. We were established in 1997 as one of the pioneers of dragon boat racing in the United States. Our paddlers have competed all across the world, domestically in cities such as New York, Boston, Washington D.C, Hartford, Tampa Bay, San Francisco, etc. and internationally in Hong Kong, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Rome, and Macau. Our mission statement: To instill discipline, hard work, and camaraderie among our members to achieve mastery and success as a competitive dragon boat team.

Morgan Stanley Sea Warriors

The Morgan Stanley Sea Warriors are excited to be back at the Festival for our fourth year. The team is proud to continue the long tradition of dragon boat racing at Morgan Stanley, which has large and active contingents of paddlers in Hong Kong, London, and Budapest. 16 Like our colleagues world-wide, the Morgan Stanley Sea Warriors bring together a diverse group with common interests: a love of the outdoors, a keen competitive spirit, and an eagerness to give back to the community around us. Each year the team raises funds for a charity partner, an integral part of our race-day preparation. We are happy to be supporting Riverkeeper, a leading advocate for protecting New York's waterways. With a highly committed and expanded team this year, we look to improve on last year's results - both on the water at the Festival and with our fundraising totals!

NYC Parks Dragonboat

NYPD

The NYPD Dragon Boat Team is a sports organization that aims to promote a lifelong enjoyment of Dragonboat racing, while emphasizing a positive experience and encouraging the instillation of the core values of discipline, teamwork, safety, respect and integrity. The team consists of 100% active law enforcement officers who despite working irregular shifts, ordered overtime, weekends and holidays, still manage to find time to train. The NYPD enjoys participating in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival each year and the community it fosters.

OCA-NY Dragons

Founded in 1976, OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates- New York Chapter (OCA-NY) is one of 100+ chapters and affiliates across the country of OCA Advocates, a national non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs). Our goals are to advocate for social justice, equal opportunity, and fair treatment; to promote civic participation, education, and leadership; to advance coalition building, and to foster cultural heritage. OCA-NY's current program areas include immigration reform, voter empowerment, 2020 Census, education, hate crimes prevention, social justice, and cultural activities. We are proud and honored to have UA3 and Bruce Cost Ginger Ale supporting our team. We look forward to another winning season.

Olmsted Dragons

The Olmsted Dragons are landscape architects, engineers, administrators and planners who work at NYC Parks's Olmsted Center in Flushing Meadows Park. This group of colleagues practice in Flushing Marina.

SC Dragons

17 Participating Teams 18 Since 2012, Standard Chartered Bank has been an active participant of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York with the SC Dragons. We are team of bankers that loves to be together, near water, paddling, working together as a team and having good laughs. And, of course, we also have a passion for great food - so, throughout the whole event you'll find us grilling something.

Sea Czars

The Sea Czars are a collection of friends and alumni from Hunter College High School's class of 2013. Previously members of the Hunter Dragonknights and Hunter Haunters, they formed the team as a way of reconnecting over the summer.

Team East Dragon

East Dragon team is a group of energize people who love dragon boat racing from New York. We come together and form this team back in 2008. This year will be our 10 years participation for this wonderful event of Hong Kong Dragon boat Festival. By participates the race every year, it provides a very good opportunity for all members to get together and enjoy the festival. It is the best event that awaiting for every year.

Team New York Life

New York Life's Dragon Boat paddlers are excited to be back at the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival for the fifth consecutive year. Sponsored by the company's Asian Network Employee Resource Group, the New York Life team consists of a diverse group of employees, friends and families from departments and locations. Our Tampa office dragon boat team also competed in the 2018 Tampa Bay International Dragon Boat Race in April. We have both veterans and newcomers to Dragon Boat racing this year, as well as an elevated level of intensity at training. We appreciate the challenges of training on water and sacrifice made by all on our summer weekends. Most importantly, we are focused on rhythmic and synchronous paddling, teamwork and unity in competitive spirit as we represent New York Life on the water as well as on shore. With competitive energy and strong comradeship, we look forward to raising our game, competing to win, and also having LOTS of fun out there at Flushing Fresh Meadow Park!!

Team PSEG Long Island

Team PSEG Long Island participating in the 2018Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York is sponsored by ASPIRE (Asians & Pacific Islanders Reaching for Excellence), a PSEG Long Island employee business resource group. ASPIRE's mission is to promote diversity and inclusion and foster growth and leadership opportunities for Asians & Pacific Islanders at PSEG Long Island; and to serve as a business advocate, as trusted advisors, as well as a networking resource to executive management on behalf of employees of Asian and Pacific Islander descent throughout the PSEG Long Island enterprise. ASPIRE is involved in many community partnership events through Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. These include volunteering in soup kitchens, beach cleanups, town beatification programs, and many health awareness walk/run events. Team PSEG Long Island was formed to exemplify the commitment and spirit needed to partake in this team sport that has taken place for more than 20 centuries across Asia. The team consists of members from various backgrounds but through unison we are able to paddle forward as one. With 2018 as the Third year for PSEG Long Island participation, we are looking to build upon our experiences to create a long lasting relationship for future Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festivals.

UA3

UA3 is a charitable organization with focus to bridge the digital divide for kindergarden and elementary school children who are studying in our public eduction system. We put learning first and enhance educational outcomes through the application of appropriate technology. UA3 recognizes technology is an utility for life, and we must build a technology foundation from earlyage education. Our dragon team mostly consists of first-time young professionals who are volunteers at UA3 and who wish to engage more with the Chinese culture and bring our heritage into more sectors of community.

Waterfront Alliance

Waterbugs In their 2017 debut, the Waterbugs put their faith in the protection of Mazu, patron of seafarers, and the