On a warm Tuesday night in August, we went to a practice for the Dragon Boat Races on the Canton waterfront in Baltimore.

The race, a charity event benefitting Catholic Charities, is going to take place on September 9, 2006.

We were there to do some interviews with Team Arch, the team from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Miss Smith, the director of St. Veronica's After-School Program, is a team spirit leader for the Team Arch Dragon Boat. Miss Smith led the group in cheers--she is really good at it!

Each Dragon Boat holds a team of rowers, a captain, and a drummer, and they are cheered on by team members on shore. We saw many other teams practicing rowing and cheering, and they are our competition.

We asked team spirit leader Julie Henn how she got involved. "The two team captains convinced me to come," she said. "It is exciting and a lot of fun." Team member Kathy Wandishin predicted "We are going to finish big this year."

The training looked hard. Rower Andrew Vevieros said "it was tough, but it is getting better. We want to cross the finish line and not finish last." Fellow rower Matt Anthony said he was "wet and tired" when he first started practicing, but now his competitive spirit has kicked in and he wants to "come in first place and raise as much money as we can."

Dot Acosta is the oldest member of the team and it is her fifth year participating in the Dragon Boat Races. "At first, I didn't think I'd be able to do it," she said. "But now I am a paddler and I am very strong."