Pennsylvania Dragon Boat Club, founded in 2015, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Philadelphia, PA. We train in the sport of dragon boat and compete across the East Coast United States. PDBC is an organization dedicated to building a community around the sport of dragon boat. The team promotes healthy lifestyles, develops team managers and coaches, and teaches members how to be role models to others. Although our focus is dragon boat, our philosophy emphasizes the development of members as athletes and as successful individuals in their lives outside of the team. PDBC’s mission is to train and develop paddlers to be their best on and off the boat and to act as role models within our Philadelphia communities through the sport of dragon boat. PDBC started in 2012 as a recreational team made up of UPenn alumni. After two years of recreational racing, we rebuilt the organization as a competitive dragon boat club with a commitment to set the foundation for a large, scalable organization. The team is built on four core principles – culture, camaraderie, competition, and character. We respect team and individual culture through inclusivity, encourage camaraderie through trust and having fun, embrace challenges by seeking out competition, and promote good character by practicing good sportsmanship. These pillars will be the backbone of our organization as we continue to expand over the coming years.
