One of the Rotary Club of Stratford’s biggest events is the star of a new documentary.
The Ripple Effect, directed by Ballinran Entertaiment president Craig Thompson, follows the impact of the Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival on a local and global scale.
Thompson said the festival shows what community support can do when people work together for a common purpose.
Making the documentary was a personal one for him.
“My father was involved in the Kiwanis Club for many years so I grew up around that world of community service, and I’m well aware of the impact of the Dragon Boat Festival,” said Thompson.
“My wife is Chinese-Canadian, my daughter is mixed and dragon boating comes from the Chinese culture, and I’ve always admired Ken Gene.”
The Stratford Dragon Boat Club said Gene is one of the key people who introduced dragon boating to Stratford. During his tenure as event director from 1996 to 1998, he helped turn the dragon boat festival into the largest one, per capita, in North America.
Thompson said people think the festival is for Stratford.
“We had this screening at the Tom Patterson Theatre, and we had some people from Rotary International on the panel, they spread the word with Rotary International and we were on their global podcast, two weeks ago we were in Rotary magazine, we’re all across LinkedIn, and they invited me to go to Tai Pei in June, to screen the film at the global convention.”
He described the festival as a model for the rest of the world.
Tickets are $20, with proceeds going towards the festival.
The screening starts at 7 p.m. at Stratford Intermediate School.
