Being a nonprofit organization, the Tampa Bay Dragon Boat Institute chose two beneficiaries, which receive the event’s proceeds: FACTors Breast Cancer Patient Support Program at Moffitt Cancer Center and the Florida Aquarium.   In the late 1980s Breast Cancer Survivor (BCS) dragon boat teams started forming in Canada and the Northwestern United States, as it was discovered that the sport greatly improved the physical, emotional and social aspects of the recovery process. Over the course of two decades, BCS teams have become a worldwide phenomena, in which Tampa is proud to be a part of.

The FACTors Program has been a part of the breast program at Moffitt Cancer Center for the past 22 years. Today, it continues its original mission, “to provide education, information and support to breast cancer patients and their families.” FACTors accomplishes this in a variety of ways; by holding monthly informational support meetings, through the publication of a quarterly newsletter, by creating resources about community services and information pertinent to breast cancer patients, by providing a one-of-a-kind “We Care” comfort bear to each Moffitt breast cancer patient on the day of their surgery and by hosting a one day annual Fall Breast Cancer Education Conference. 

Because the FACTors program is a not-for-profit within the Moffitt Cancer Center, funding to support these patient initiatives depends solely upon community and individual support. Our affiliation with the Tampa Bay Dragon Boat Races organization has been one we are most proud of and humbled by. The generous funds awarded to us have been used specifically to fund both the “We Care” Bear Program and the annual Fall Breast Cancer Education Conference. We distribute more than 700 “We Care” bears each year and attract over 600 attendees (breast cancer survivors, patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals from 20 counties in Florida) to the annual Fall Breast Cancer Education Conference.

People in Tampa Bay know The Florida Aquarium as a day of family fun, filled with animal encounters amid lush recreations of Florida habitats. These memorable experiences help us tell the Florida water story to over 650,000 guests annually, meeting our mission to entertain, educate and inspire stewardship about our natural environment. But beyond the exhibit path, from classrooms around the region to coral reefs in the Florida Keys, the Aquarium is also having a profound impact on the quality of education and quality of life in our state. In 2008, our work included:

• Leading innovative research initiatives to preserve aquatic habitats and endangered species.

• Sponsored Admissions provides children in Head Start programs, low-income schools and community service agencies with a day of discovery. Requests from Title I schools for Sponsored Admissions have increased 350% from this time last year…
  

• Creating new programs that serve changing needs in community – the fastest growing segment of the population in the Tampa Bay region is Hispanic. The Aquarium makes a concerted effort to welcome Spanish-speaking guests, providing an exhibit pathway map in Spanish, marketing through Spanish-language media, and creating bilingual outreach programs for students and their families.

• Free outreach programs to libraries, senior centers, migrant centers and fairs reach 13,000 people with animal encounters and demonstrations, such as recreating a beach onsite with live animals.

• Fish in the Classroom provided 100 elementary classrooms in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties with free freshwater fish tank systems last year, as well as fish and a year’s supplies to keep them healthy. Teachers attended workshops to learn how to set up the tank and received curriculum that ties a year of animal care to standards for math, science and social studies. Nearly 6,000 students learned responsible pet care as they engaged in hands-on science activities all year.
  

• DeSoto Elementary, based in the Aquarium’s neighborhood, has a mission in tune with ours: creating future leaders in environmental science. Over 90% of the school's student body is economically disadvantaged and nearly 50% are learning English as a second language. The Aquarium began a partnership with DeSoto to begin addressing the pressing problem of building family science literacy in bilingual families.
  

• The Aquarium offers teacher development workshops on science topics important to Floridians, including marine biology, Everglades, invasive species and underwater archaeology. Workshops are free, including take home materials such as standards-aligned curriculum, classroom activities and reading lists.
  

• Our underwater archaeology initiative utilizes new scanning technologies to conduct the first survey of historic shipwrecks in Tampa Bay.

 Preserving aquatic ecosystems and rescuing endangered species: The Florida Aquarium's Center for Conservation serves both as a rehabilitation facility for injured animals from endangered species and a base for our cutting edge research on ecosystems.

• The Florida Aquarium is one of only a few facilities in the country with a full-time veterinary program and medical staff that can assist with animal rehabilitation efforts around the clock. We have rescued dozens of sea turtles, marine mammals and other wildlife.
  

• The Global Coral Research Institute, a key initiative of the Aquarium’s Center for Conservation, leads a coral reef restoration project in the Keys that may offer a new approach for saving coral reefs worldwide. Florida's coral reefs are the only shallow water reefs in the continental United States, and have suffered considerable loss due to dredging, ship groundings, pollution, illegal collecting and harsh weather conditions.
  

• The Florida Aquarium has developed the world’s health certificate for returning replanting coral into the wild to help rebuild our reefs. We are pleased to report that initial results are promising.