On Sunday 29 May, Leweston School had two teams enter the annual Sherborne Fair Dragon Boat Race. As usual, the school chooses a charity to raise money for, and this year they chose JDRF, a Type 1 diabetes charity.
JDRF is a non-profit organisation that is committed to the prevention, treatment and eradication of Type 1 diabetes for young people in the UK. They have supported children living with T1D for 50 years by working to increase the availability of treatments and providing resources to help manage their condition. JDRF’s work has led to new developments in research technology and treatment, with hope of a cure in the near future. The school chose to support this charity for a number of reasons; primarily, due to the direct impact this disease has on members of the school community and their families. One student said,
‘The fact that JDRF is actually looking for a solution and cure for diabetes is so inspiring and I really hope we can be a small part of helping to fund research to make that happen.’
On top of all that, diabetes is not a cause that Leweston has previously supported on such a scale, so the school felt this was a good opportunity to raise awareness of the disease within the school environment and hopefully the wider local community.
There were two teams of 17 in each boat, with the Blue team consisting of Years 7-9, and red team containing Years 9-11. Each team had 3 races with the fastest times going forward to the youth final top 4 teams, and semi-finals for the adult race top 8 teams.
Both teams qualified for the youth final, with the Red team also qualifying for the adult semi-final. The Leweston Red took part in the last semi-final, winning their race to qualify for the senior final. The Red team then had to stay in their boat and race in the youth final which they won by two boat lengths. The Leweston Blue recorded their fastest time of the day to take silver, having to work hard in the last 50m to overtake the sea cadet team.
The Red team then had to race in the Senior final taking part in 3 races in a row, they worked hard to finish 4th and smashed their fundraising target of £1,000!
Well done to both teams who worked hard in the races and had a great day out at the fair with friends and family.