Thursday, September 18, 2008

Olympic gold medalists, survivors unite against breast cancer at Seattle Row for the Cure®

 Annual benefit regatta raised $97,000 in 2007

 SEATTLE – Members of the U.S. gold medal women’s eight-oared crew from the Beijing Olympic Games will unite with U.S. gold medal rowers from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and local breast cancer survivors Sunday morning, Sept. 21 to fight breast cancer at Seattle’s annual Row for the Cure® regatta on Lake Union.

A record 500 rowers competing in over 90 boats from 18 rowing clubs in Seattle, Redmond, Olympia, Everett, Vashon Island and Bainbridge Island along with Native American tribal canoes, kayaks and dragon boats are entered in the annual 4.5 kilometer fundraiser for the Puget Sound Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The row helps kick-off October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the Emerald City and is one of 19 Row for the Cure® regattas in the U.S. and one in Frankfurt, Germany.   In 2007, Seattle’s Row for the Cure®, a third-party event of Susan G. Komen for the Cure raised $97,000.

Participating 2008 Olympic gold medalists are Mary Whipple (Sacramento, Calif.) a former University of Washington coxswain, Erin Cafaro (Modesto, Calif.) and Susan Francia (Abington, Pa.).  Other Beijing Olympians include Portia McGee (Seattle, Wash.) and Lia Pernell (Seattle, Wash.).  Sam Magee (Simsbury, Conn.), a 2004 U.S. Olympic silver medalist and 2007 world champion will also pull an oar in the event.  Participating 1984 Olympic gold medalists, the last U.S. women’s Olympic eight-oared crew to win gold prior to the Beijing Games, include former Washington coxswain Betsy Beard Stillings (Seattle, Wash.) and cancer survivors Kristi Norelius (Olympia, Wash.), and Shyril O’Steen (Seattle, Wash.)

 “It’s going to be exciting to row with women from the 1984 U.S. Olympic team and survivors,” said Whipple, the U.S. coxswain who won her second Olympic medal last month in Beijing.  “The entire rowing community is rallying around breast cancer.   In Beijing it took more than one person to win the gold and it takes a community to rally behind friends and family that are fighting breast cancer.”

Patricia Jonas, a breast cancer survivor from Redmond’s Sammamish Rowing Association, is one of nine survivors that will row in the two Olympic eights.  Jonas, 54, of Kirkland, was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time this past year after her first diagnosis at age 39. Over 100 masters and high school athletes from her Redmond, Wash. club, including her daughter Katherine, a former collegiate rower at Harvard’s Radcliffe College, will row on Sunday in support of Jonas and another teammate that have fought the disease.

“I’m pretty much an optimist.  I’ve been through this before and I believed I could get through it again,” said Jonas, a former ballet dancer who took up rowing after her daughter Katherine joined the Sammamish junior crew.

“Once you have a diagnosis like that you have a choice - to live in fear or not to.  I’m not going to worry about it and not be fearful,” said Jonas who embraced her treatment and fought to get back on the water.  “Rowing was really elemental in my recovery.  The support of my teammates was a huge motivator.  The idea of them being out there without me was not acceptable,” she said. 

Following her second mastectomy this fall, Jonas began riding a stationary bike right away and was back on the rowing ergometer by the first of the year.  “It’s tough when you have cancer.  They say it requires the most number of decisions in the least amount of time; surgeons, oncologists, radiologists in just a few days,” she said.  “We’re fortunate that we live in an area where there are so many resources.  The mindset was to get as much info as possible.”

Racing begins at 7 a.m. and runs until 8:30 a.m. with crews starting near Seattle Pacific University in the Lake Washington Ship Canal and racing under the Fremont Bridge to the finish line just east of South Lake Union Park.   Spectators can view the race along the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Fremont and Lake Union Park.

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 over $400,000 in the fight against breast cancer.  Row for the Cure is one of the top three non-corporate, all-volunteer coordinated third-party events benefiting the Puget Sound Affiliate.

Proceeds from each Row for the Cure® benefit the local affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, 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. 

The public can sponsor a rower or donate online by logging on to http://www.rowforthecure.com/cities/seattle.htm

About Row for the Cure®

Row for the Cure® (www.RowForTheCure.com) regattas are third-party events benefiting local affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. Since the regatta’s inception in 1994 on Portland’s Willamette River, Row for the Cure® has expanded to over 19 cities, raising over $700,000 in the fight to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease. Seattle Row for the Cure is made possible by USRowing, Google, Starbucks, H.D. Fowler Company, Seattle Breast Center at Northwest Hospital, Lane Powell Attorneys and Counselors, Pocock Racing Shells, Ryan, Swanson & Cleveland, Sweeney Conrad P.S., Skellenger Bender P.S., Columbia Bank, Foss Maritime Company, Shoreline Bank, SHKS Architects and US Bank.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Susan G. Komen for the Cure was founded on a promise made between two sisters – Susan Goodman Komen and Nancy Goodman Brinker. Suzy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978, a time when little was known about the disease and it was rarely discussed in public. Before she died at the age of 36, Suzy asked her sister to do everything possible to bring an end to breast cancer. Nancy kept her promise by establishing the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1982 in Suzy’s memory.  The organization recently changed its name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in honor of its 25th anniversary and with this, a renewed promise to find the cures for breast cancer.

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