The 10th anniversary Colorado Dragon Boat Festival last weekend at Sloan’s Lake Park was a huge success, with attendance confirmed at 100,000.
It was the fourth year in a row that attendance hit the six figure mark, reports an ecstatic Erin Yoshimura, the executive director.
“It was a fantastic event that allowed our guests to explore Asia and the Pacific without having to leave Colorado,” she said. In addition to the boat races, festival-goers enjoyed musical entertainment; interactive demonstrations of feng shui, meditation, acupuncture and massage; and shopping.
Food played an important part too, and Yoshimura announced that the pork spring rolls and grilled pork ribs from Chez Thuy won best of show in the food competition and that the sampler combo sold by parishioners from Queen of Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church was awarded first prize/meal by a judging panel made up of Mick Rosacci of Tony’s Market, restaurateur Leo Goto and Elana Ashanti Jefferson of The Denver Post. The judges also gave a first place/desserts nod to Bam-Bu frozen yogurt.
The night before the festival opened, major donors gathered at Palace Chinese Restaurant for a reception honoring Daniel Oh and Bob and Joanna Sakata.
Oh, the festival’s honorary chairman for 2010, is a native of Korea who decided to make Colorado his home after attending college here. A certified public accountant, investor and Realtor, Oh serves on the Governor’s Asian Pacific Advisory Council and is a founding member of the Aurora Asian Pacific Community Partnership. He received the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award in 2003 and was named an Asian American Hero of Colorado in 2009.
The Sakatas are among the nation’s top 100 vegetable growers, cultivating 25 million ears of corn annually on their 3,000-acre farm near Brighton, and served as the festival’s honorary patrons. They also grow onions, cabbage and broccoli.
Bob Sakata is a second-generation Japanese-American and believes that giving is the key to happiness. “Nothing makes a person feel better,” he declares.
He is president of the Japan America Society of Colorado, a past president of the Brighton Japanese American Association and co-chair of a fundraising campaign to build a monument in Washington, D.C., that honors the Nisei military men who gave their lives in World War II. Distinguished visitors to his farm have included the emperor and empress of Japan.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
