Banking on KC – Michelle Steger and Lacey Fisher of KC Pink Warriors
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode are Michelle Steger and Lacey Fisher, the founder and the director of fundraising for KC Pink Warriors, and that's a community of female cancer survivors who inspire and empower each other through dragon boat competitions. Welcome to you both.
Lacey Fisher:
Thank you for having us.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, I just have to start out by saying, I know this was all born from a desire to empower cancer survivors, but what is dragon boat racing? I just need to get that out there first.
Michelle Steger:
Oh, it's a good question. Dragon boat racing is an ancient Chinese sport. It dates back to around 2000 years, involves a large canoe-like boat.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's like 40 feet long. They're not small.
Michelle Steger:
Yeah. The standard boat is 40 feet long. It's about four feet in the middle, and then it narrows to the front and back at a peak. In the boat, you have 10 benches. Each bench has two paddlers.
Kelly Scanlon:
This is something that's done in unison when you see them rowing.
Michelle Steger:
Yes. To the beat of a drum.
Kelly Scanlon:
It takes some coordination.
Michelle Steger:
Yes, exactly. So yes, there's 20 paddlers and the point is for them to paddle all in unison in an effort to make the boat go fast and efficient. It's the ultimate team sport. In the front, you have a drummer in a seat who hits a big drum and keeps the cadence of the strokes. In the back, you have a steersperson with about a nine-foot oar who directs the bow the direction it needs to go.
Kelly Scanlon:
Kansas City is not the only city that has dragon boat competitions or teams. So Michelle, I know you're the founder. What inspired you to start this?
Michelle Steger:
My cancer journey started actually at Disney World of all places. I was in line with my children to visit Donald Duck, and I was very uncomfortable in my bra and felt something painful and weird and it just dawned on me that something wasn't right. From there, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through chemo and bilateral mastectomies on to radiation and eventually reconstruction. Shortly after my treatments, I was introduced to dragon boat for breast cancer survivors while we were living in Tampa.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay, so this all started down in Florida. And then I believe your husband is or was with the military?
Michelle Steger:
Yes, he's retired army.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay. And you got transferred back to Kansas City?
Michelle Steger:
We did shortly after I picked up the sport, so I was like, "Okay." I fell in love with the sport and my team, and shortly after that, we were picked up to move back to Kansas City, to move home.
Kelly Scanlon:
And you missed the sport though.
Michelle Steger:
I did. I missed the sisterhood quite a bit and they all inspired me and urged me to bring this to cancer survivors in Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
All right, so tell us about how that got started, how you got your initial team together, and then we'll talk about how it's grown.
Michelle Steger:
Not too long after moving back to Kansas City, I got the itch to start a team, and I was mentored by one of my former teammates who started the team in Florida. I put it out on social media, and by April 6th, 2019, I had about 20 ladies and we met in a gym, very simply practiced on wooden boxes with yardsticks, and we practiced our stroke and staying in unison with one another to prep for the day that we'd be on water. None of them had ever heard of this before or been on the water, but it didn't take them long to be bitten by the dragon, as we like to say.
Kelly Scanlon:
So talk to me about the relationship between the cancer survivorship and why dragon boat racing is such a great thing.
Michelle Steger:
That's a great question. So yes, that dates us back to around 1996 when a doctor, Dr. McKenzie, in Canada had challenged the idea that breast cancer survivors were at risk for lymphedema. He disagreed with it.
Kelly Scanlon:
And that's swelling, right?
Michelle Steger:
Swelling, yes. And many ladies were afraid to even rake leaves in their yard and to do minor tasks and were basically discouraged of physical activity. To test the theory, Dr. McKenzie got a group of women together in a dragon boat and tested it out, and everybody was just fine and they were hooked on the sport and they started the very first dragon boat team for breast cancer survivors. And to this day, there are now 360 teams in 39 countries all around the world.
Kelly Scanlon:
Is that strictly for breast cancer survivors or is that for all competitive dragon boat racing?
Michelle Steger:
That's breast cancer survivor teams.
Kelly Scanlon:
Wow.
Michelle Steger:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's a lot.
Lacey Fisher:
They found that movement is really rehabilitative to women that have undergone surgeries and reconstruction, and so that movement of moving the paddle through the water is really rehabilitative.
Kelly Scanlon:
In addition to the exercise benefits and the rehabilitation of the body, also, it rehabilitates the spirit as well. Talk to us about that.
Lacey Fisher:
Camaraderie is at the heart and soul of everything that we do, and I always say that this is a little bit of a sisterhood that none of us really wanted to be part of, to be very frank. This is lemonade that we didn't care to make ever in our lives, but it's a true silver lining. And you build a really positive and healthy culture and camaraderie in a group when you do hard things together, but then also when you are able to unwind and do some carefree social activities, and we do that all of the time. We practice three times a week, so we're out there really testing ourselves-
Kelly Scanlon:
Wyandotte Lake?
Lacey Fisher:
... and working hard together. Yes, out at Wyandotte Lake. That's our home lake. We're practicing four hours-ish a week, and we're doing hard things together for those four hours. And then we try really diligently to get together at organized social outings or not. It might just be a cup of coffee or breakfast after practice one morning. So I think the camaraderie is really at the basis of this, and that's something that you have to have when you get such a devastating diagnosis. And so the fact that we are able to be there for each other, it's incredible.
Kelly Scanlon:
And since you first started, it's spread through word of mouth and I've seen some YouTube videos as well, so you've gotten some other publicity. Tell us a little bit about where you are now in terms of your growth. I know you have more than one boat. And importantly, you have traveled all over to participate in these competitions.
Michelle Steger:
Yes, we have. We've traveled quite a bit throughout the country. Vancouver, Canada twice. We're going to France in 2026 to compete on the world stage. And so we're really excited to represent Kansas City anywhere we go, but especially in France.
Kelly Scanlon:
Now, when you go to these competitions, are there various categories that you can enter in? Is there a breast cancer? Or do you just go and everybody races equally?
Michelle Steger:
There are different divisions. At its core, it's anywhere from elite teams to community teams, youth teams. There are teams that have blind paddlers even. Yeah, it's a wide variety. And one of the things I love so much about this sport is that it can be any age. We've paddled with women who are in their nineties.
Kelly Scanlon:
Wow.
Michelle Steger:
It's amazing. It's just a full body, but not hard on your joints.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's hard to believe. It looks like it takes so much strength to-
Michelle Steger:
Well, it does.
Kelly Scanlon:
It doesn't affect your joints.
Michelle Steger:
It does. It's not-
Kelly Scanlon:
You develop muscle.
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah, for sure.
Michelle Steger:
But it spans a lot of ages. There are para-athletes-
Lacey Fisher:
That need accommodations and, yeah, have different abilities.
Michelle Steger:
That's a whole division in of itself.
Kelly Scanlon:
I see. Okay.
Michelle Steger:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you have a lot of different divisions, and you're up to, what, two boats now? Because you've got more than 40 members, is that right?
Michelle Steger:
We have a 20-person boat and a 10-person boat.
Kelly Scanlon:
So sometimes, if you don't have as many people participating for whatever reason, you can take the 10-person one out?
Michelle Steger:
Well, we don't take the boats to competitions. Those stay in the lake. They stay in Kansas, and we only train in those. When we go to our competitions, when we go to the festivals and race, whoever's hosting the festival will supply the boats and the equipment.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, and that makes sense to make sure everything's standardized. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So what are some of the challenges that you have faced in getting this off the ground and then managing the growth that you've had over the last couple of years?
Michelle Steger:
Well, I'd say the growth has probably been the biggest challenge. We grew very, very quickly and at times it proved to be a challenge for our volunteer leadership to keep up with.
Kelly Scanlon:
Organizing volunteers is a skill in itself, believe me.
Michelle Steger:
And we've got wonderful volunteers, very, very hardworking volunteers that make all this happen.
Kelly Scanlon:
You mentioned the volunteers, but you also need community support. It sounds to me like that's something that's vital to your operations too. So what are some of the ways that local businesses and individuals rally behind the KC Pink Warriors? And how have those partnerships helped the team thrive? And I'm going to throw that question to you, Lacey, because you're dealing with fundraising. I'm sure you work with a lot of these folks.
Lacey Fisher:
Yes. We simply couldn't do what we do without the help from sponsors and supporters. And every year we see operational costs that it just takes to be able to have the boat on the water to have the equipment to go to these festivals. So luckily we're in Kansas City, which is a very giving community.
Kelly Scanlon:
Absolutely.
Lacey Fisher:
And there's hardly ever any hesitation to reach out to a company and they come back immediately and are happy to help, and usually go even above and beyond what the initial ask is. So we've been very fortunate in securing these sponsorships and partnerships that Country Club Bank jumped right on. So we see that Kansas City is really giving, and it makes it possible for us because simply we couldn't do it without the support of the community.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you have your first Kansas City Dragon Boat Festival coming up, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a major event. I know you've gotten lots of sponsors on board. So what are your hopes for the festival and how do you see it influencing the future of dragon boat racing in the region?
Lacey Fisher:
Kansas City is such a sports community, and so we want to tap into that a little bit and we want to bring even more people to our city. And so I think our hopes for this festival is a little bit multifold. We want it to become a staple on the competitive teams that do have to travel around all across the nation to be able to compete. But we also want it to be a staple on the calendar of these community teams that are coming together just for a fun time on a Saturday afternoon where maybe their co-workers, colleagues, friends, family, where they can do something different that they don't get to do anywhere else in the city. The festival is shaping up to be really unique. In fact, when we were in Vancouver, the commentators of our races commented on the Kansas City team. We were the ones to watch because they just thought it was crazy that there was a Kansas City team.
Michelle Steger:
Such a novelty.
Kelly Scanlon:
Really? Why?
Lacey Fisher:
And they made the comment, they said, "Do they even have any water in the Midwest?" So dragon boat racing is popular on the coast and it's making its way into the Midwest, but it's still pretty unique to the Midwest. And so being able to be right smack dab in the middle of the country and be a spot that can bring all of these teams together is just a no-brainer for us.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, how long in general has it been an organized sport? I know you said that dragon boats date back 2000 years to, I believe you said, China. Has it always been involved in competitive racing in an organized fashion?
Michelle Steger:
I think it really took off in certain regions around the world in the seventies and became more organized. And the boats went from being really big Taiwan-style boats to the Hong Kong style of boats that you see now, the more slender, sleeker, faster boats that encouraged more exciting races.
Kelly Scanlon:
So with that, I would assume there was a change in material, say from wood to maybe fiberglass and more modern-
Michelle Steger:
Yeah. Fiberglass, yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's becoming so fashionable, so popular, I believe that in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo-
Michelle Steger:
And this one.
Kelly Scanlon:
And in this one too? Showcased it a little bit.
Lacey Fisher:
An exhibition, yeah.
Kelly Scanlon:
Are they testing the waters on that?
Lacey Fisher:
We sure hope so.
Kelly Scanlon:
I might be interviewing two future-
Lacey Fisher:
We sure hope so. Yeah. But to that point, you will find it in colleges on the West Coast, so it's competitive wherever it is.
Kelly Scanlon:
So tell us about this festival that's coming up. When is it? What can people expect? Is the general public invited to come out? Tell us all about it.
Lacey Fisher:
Yes. This will be held Saturday, September 28th in Shawnee Mission Park, which side note, Shawnee Mission Park is the most visited park in Kansas. So we were strategic in bringing it to that park. We will have vendors, we will have a health and wellness expo, we will have various entertainment throughout the day. Food trucks will be out there. And yes, this is absolutely a free event for the public. As it is such a visited park, we're hoping that we get some of the attention from folks that were just planning to be there on that fall day and-
Kelly Scanlon:
Coming out to see what all the excitement's about over in that part of the park?
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah, so that's absolutely our hope in keeping this a free event for the public to attend, is to really spur up that conversation and get a little bit more momentum here in the community.
Kelly Scanlon:
How long do these events usually take, the races? Do they run in flights? All the boats go out at once? How does it all work?
Michelle Steger:
A standard race length is 500 meters, which is basically a sprint. And it depends on how many boats are provided. Anywhere from two boats on up to six or eight boats. Our festival will be anywhere from two to four boats racing at one time. We're not sure yet. With our festival, there'll be two preliminary races that lead to a final.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, okay. All right.
Michelle Steger:
So three races total per team.
Lacey Fisher:
And duration of the festival just depends on the festival. When we were in Vancouver, that's a two-day festival. Ours will be a one-day festival. We'll kick off at eight in the morning, and we're expecting everybody to be finished racing probably four-ish in the afternoon. And all competing teams get an opportunity to race about three times.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, okay.
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah. So it'll be a fun full day.
Kelly Scanlon:
You'll be tired at the end of the day.
Lacey Fisher:
Yes, but we're very much looking forward to it.
Kelly Scanlon:
With everything that you've got going on, it sounds like, why did you even decide that you needed to start an annual festival? That takes things to such a higher level.
Michelle Steger:
Well, having a festival has been a dream of everybody on this team for a very long time. It seemed a little far-fetched in a way because it's just a big undertaking. But we are so grateful to our president, Linda Miller, who actually reached out to a company called a Great White North out of Canada. And what they do is they produce dragon boat festivals. That's what they've been doing for many, many years. They offered us to partner with them and produce this festival.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you're able to tap into their expertise and knowledge. They can mentor you.
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah, and this was just a year ago that these conversations started, so it has been full board.
Michelle Steger:
Jumped right in.
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah. Yep, jumped right in. Johnson County Parks and Recreation District, they're the host venue for the site at Shawnee Mission Lake. And so having the availability and working with us on a lake closure, that is something that has never been done before with Johnson County Parks and Rec, so we're super thankful for them as well. And so yeah, lots of moving pieces, everybody coming together to bring this to Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
You talked a little bit about how this isn't just for the sport of it, that there's a camaraderie behind it and so forth, that you support each other off the water. Can you share any stories or any examples of where that was especially helpful to someone on your team?
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah. Cancer is tough. The diagnosis is devastating for both the person as well as the family. Their whole tribe is affected by a cancer diagnosis, and so having this group together, that is at the core of our mission, is to take care of each other in that horrible diagnosis. And so that might look like a meal train for one of the members if they're going through a surgery or particularly tough time with their diagnosis. It might look like celebrating the birth of a grandbaby. And so we like to celebrate the highs and the lows, but I think being able to support each other is just a silver lining to this whole team. And it has made the cancer journey a lot more bearable.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, there's a lot of people that you can celebrate things with, but people who have actually experienced what you've experienced, it brings that to a whole other level.
Lacey Fisher:
Absolutely. Our text messaging thread is just a constant thread of everybody reaching out to each other, and it might look like yard work or somebody reaching out about, "Hey, I'm having a yard sale," or, "Any suggestions about this?" or, "Here's a recipe for this." And so it's just a fabulous community and it's one of my very first thoughts. If I ever need to think of a contractor or something, "Hey, I'm going to reach out to the girls and see. I've got 50 people right here that can help with pretty much anything."
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, so it's become a full-fledged support group over and above the boat racing.
Lacey Fisher:
Yes. And unfortunately, we do have members that have received a metastatic diagnosis, and so we see them along with that journey and we do as much as we can to support them in what is very challenging times.
Kelly Scanlon:
So as you look to the future, what are your long-term goals for the KC Pink Warriors? It's fabulous that you're hosting your own race, your own competition this year. What are some of the longer-term goals and how do you plan to continue your expansion and your impact?
Michelle Steger:
Our primary goal is to grow this team and to continue to offer this amazing life-changing opportunity to other female cancer survivors here in Kansas City. That would definitely be our top goal is just to continue to grow. Second of all would be to grow the sport in Kansas City. We love it so much and we just want everybody to experience it, so that would be probably our second goal. And I think Lacey will speak to our third goal.
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah. Our third goal is to impact the community and to support the community that gives to us. And so every year the team determines a charity of choice to help, and that might look like volunteer hours. That might look like lending support in other ways. It's usually a cancer-based organization, and so this year we are happy to support Cancer Action and they're doing amazing things within the cancer community here in Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
What do they do?
Lacey Fisher:
They provide resources and support services for people getting that diagnosis and navigating the treatment path and determining financial ways to handle that kind of news. Obviously, they are supporting the cancer community. We are the cancer community, so it's a full circle moment for us to be able to help them out as well.
Kelly Scanlon:
Do you have to register to attend the festival?
Lacey Fisher:
As a competing team, yes. We are over 20 teams registered now. We have some competitive breast cancer teams, but we also have community teams that have never done it before. They're coming out just for a good time and to hang out for the day. So yes, we are still taking registrations. We will take them up until about a week before the festival, and at that point, we will try to set the race schedule, so that's the reason for the cutoff there. But yeah, it is a registration for the event.
Kelly Scanlon:
And that's all on your website at kcpinkwarriors.org?
Lacey Fisher:
Absolutely.
Kelly Scanlon:
You'll find it there. But anybody who wants to come out and see you out there, blood, sweat, and tearing with those boats, because I know that takes a lot, you can come free. And you don't have to register. You can just come on over, see what's going on and-
Lacey Fisher:
Enjoy the vendors, the entertainment, the food trucks. Absolutely.
Michelle Steger:
I will add, we're very proud that we have teams coming from all over the country to Kansas City. We have a team from Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado, Oregon.
Lacey Fisher:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Look at you.
Lacey Fisher:
They'll travel.
Michelle Steger:
I remember all of this.
Lacey Fisher:
Isn't that great? Yes.
Michelle Steger:
There's probably more too.
Lacey Fisher:
They're all eager to come check out Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's great. That's great. Raising Kansas City's profile like that, and supporting the local community and the specific niche of breast cancer diagnosed women in that process too. If anybody would be interested in helping out with a donation, is that something that they can do on the website or through the website, or do they need to get a hold of you personally?
Lacey Fisher:
Yeah, absolutely. They're able to support the team directly that way. Or if they'd like to be a part of the festival, we have all that information available on the website.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's kcpinkwarriors.org. Michelle, Lacey, thank you so much for coming out here today-
Lacey Fisher:
Thank you.
Kelly Scanlon:
... and sharing this story with us, and letting us know about a fun thing that we can do here in maybe just a few weeks.
Lacey Fisher:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Michelle Steger:
Thank you so much.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Michelle Steger and Lacey Fisher for being our guests on this episode of Banking on KC. Theirs has been an incredible journey of not only surviving breast cancer, but also building community through KC Pink Warriors. Through dragon boat racing, cancer survivors inspire and empower one another. Their organization has grown rapidly, fostering camaraderie among breast cancer survivors, and also raising Kansas City's profile in this unique sport. At Country Club Bank, we believe in fostering community support and helping local organizations like KC Pink Warriors to thrive. We are proud to partner with them and other organizations that strengthen Kansas City and empower our citizens. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.