Olympians, dragon boaters help raise a record $30,000    in fight against breast cancer

Editor's Note: Contributions received following the conclusion of 2006 Portland Row for the Cure brought the event's gross total to $42,546.

PORTLAND, Ore, Sept. 17, 2006 – Portland Olympians Lisa Schlenker and Stacey Borgman defended their women’s double sculls title at the 13th annual Row for the Cure® regatta Sunday morning on the Willamette River. The regatta occurs alongside Portland’s Race for the Cure®

Schlenker and Borgman along with 72-year-old Alfred Czerner of Ashland who helped Argentina win the bronze at the 1956 Helsinki Olympics, were among some 400 rowers, canoeists and dragon boaters from Portland, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Klamath Falls, Ashland and Vancouver and Redmond, Washington that helped raise a record $30,000 for the Oregon and SW Washington Chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Czerner won Sunday’s men’s master single sculls event.

“It was good to be back in the double with Lisa for such an important event,” said Borgman whose row was a reunion of sorts with her 2004 Olympics partner Schlenker. “My mom is a breast cancer survivor and after treatment has never had a recurrence,” said Borgman whose mother Diane of Homer, Alaska was originally diagnosed in 1977. “My mom was instrumental in getting me to row. It’s nice to participate in something that I’m passionate about for a cause that is important to both of us. I’m thankful that I can do this.”

Among Sunday’s participants was Portland Chief of Police Rosie Sizer who served as honorary chair for Portland’s Row for the Cure®. "It is always extremely fun to get together with people who are like minded,” said Sizer following the awards ceremony at the Portland Boathouse. “There’s a very collegial atmosphere (among Portland’s rowers and paddlers) and a sense of accomplishment about doing something they love for a cause that they care about.”

"It’s wonderful to connect with (the Race for the Cure®),” added Sizer. "These two events are an example of people having fun, using public spaces in Portland for a worthy cause. Events like this create a sense of safety and security. They connect communities.”

For the second consecutive year, the City of Portland’s fireboat provided a pink-water display for finishers of both the Row for the Cure® and the Race for the Cure®

Top individual fundraisers included Michelle Tauley of Ashland, Ore. and the Ashland Rowing Club with $4,200, Kate Stewart of Corvallis, Ore. and the Corvallis Rowing Club with $3,025 and Sharon Kiety of Portland and the Amazon Dragons with $2,025.

Ashland Rowing Club won top fundraising honors for clubs bringing in $10,500, followed by the Corvallis Rowing Club with $6,186 and Portland’s Station L Rowing Club with $5,000.

Proceeds from each Row for the Cure® benefit the local affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, where 75 percent of the money raised stays in the community for education and treatment of breast cancer. The remaining 25 percent of monies raised support national breast cancer research projects.

Row for the Cure® in the Rose City, one of 30 third-party events that take place each year raising nearly $700,000 for the Oregon and SW Washington Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation www.komenoregon.org has now raised over $146,000 since Portland rower Kathy Frederick started the first regatta in 1994. The Row has since grown to ten U.S. cities and Frankfurt, Germany raising an estimated $430,000 in the fight to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease.