The 3,500-meter benefit regatta, which brought rowing crews to Lake Union from 18 area clubs, the USRowing training center in Princeton, N.J., and Native American paddlers from the Tulalip and Snohomish tribes and Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats, is among the top three third-party fundraisers for the Puget Sound affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Over the past three years, regatta fundraising has increased steadily growing from $12,000 in 2004 to $70,000 at Sunday’s regatta.    

Seventy five percent of the money raised for Susan G. Komen for the Cure stays in the local community for education and treatment of breast cancer.  The remaining 25 percent of monies raised support national breast cancer research projects.  Rowers and paddlers were each encouraged to raise a minimum of $150 each – the equivalent cost of a mammogram.     

Sunday’s regatta featured competition in 26 rowing and sculling events including a corporate category where the U.S. women’s team matched oars with rowers from Starbucks, Microsoft, Lane Powell and Seattle Breast Center at Northwest Hospital. 

The U.S. crew, which included rowers from the world champion U.S. women’s eight, was coxed by Leah Downey of the University of Washington.  In its exhibition, the eight of Caryn Davies (Ithaca, N.Y.), Caroline Lind (Greensborough, N.C.), Lindsay Shoop (Charlottesville, Va.), Erin Cafaro (Modesto, Calif.), Rachel Jeffers (Los Gatos, Calif.), Lindsay Meyer, (Seattle, Wash.), Lia Pernell (Seattle, Wash.) and Brett Sickler (Los Gatos, Calif.) finished with a time of 11:19.4.  Starbucks and Lane Powell were the top-finishing corporate crews in the event. 

“Breast Cancer is such a personal cause,” said Lia Pernell, a U.S. national team rower from Seattle who lost her grandmother in 2006 to breast cancer.  “We’ve all had family and friends that have been touched by cancer.  In rowing, we race as a team and we can fight breast cancer as a team. 

Caryn Davies was among the women that traveled from the USRowing training center in Princeton to participate in the regatta, which is comprised mostly of masters rowers in their 40s and 50s.  “It’s important for us as the younger generation of rowers to get mammograms early on and have a partnership with masters rowers so that we can learn from them,” said Davies, who along with other U.S. athletes, joined the top local fundraisers in a pre-regatta row on Lake Union.  “I was with a Starbucks rower that learned she had breast cancer on her first day working for the company.  I was impressed that she and her coworkers took up the cause and became so active in fighting breast cancer.” 

Seattle’s Row for the Cure® is one of 50 third-party events that take place each year in the Seattle-area benefiting the Puget Sound Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  Third-party events, which are organized by groups other than Susan G. Komen for the Cure, include activities such as Seahawks Football 101, fashion shows, concerts, rodeos and an ultra-marathon run.  In the last year, third party events of the Puget Sound Affiliate have raised $363,000 in the fight against breast cancer.