Panhel to hold its own race for a cure

Parents coming to Penn this weekend are in for a treat. When they look out the windows of the Inn at Penn Sunday morning, they will see hundreds of students running and walking down the street. The Rena Rowan Ribbon Run, celebrating the opening of the new Rena Rowan Breast Health Center in the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday outside Harnwell College House. Sponsored by Penn's Panhellenic Council as well as Allegro's, New Deck Tavern and other local establishments, the run has raised over $7,000 so far, and all the money will benefit the new center. Students can still register for the run online at http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~panhel. "Not only do we have something we can raise money for, but we also have the opportunity to volunteer there, and to actually be able to see who's benefitting is incredible," Panhel President and College senior Jennifer Chanowitz said. Rowan, who will be at the race, is the founder of the fashion line Jones New York and is a breast cancer survivor. The new center officially opened on October 3. This is the second year Panhel is sponsoring such a race, but last year's was on a much smaller scale and the proceeds went to a national breast cancer organization. Last spring, after finding out that the Rowan Center would be built near campus, University President Judith Rodin recommended to the executive board of Panhel that they build a relationship with the new center and make it a lasting philanthropy project. "We're really excited. It's a new relationship, and it's something that people in Panhel can really get involved in," Chanowitz said. "It's really nice to be able to give back to the community... especially on such an important women's issue." College junior Katie Klein, who also serves on Panhel's executive board, echoed these sentiments. "We do things all year, smaller events, but this is something we want the entire school to be involved in, because it's such an amazing cause," Klein said. For many students working on the event, there were personal motivations for furthering cancer research and treatment. "I don't know anybody who hasn't been affected by it," Chanowitz said. "I think anything I can do to foster Panhel members and students in general giving to the community I'm going to try to do." Indeed, Chanowitz and the other organizers of the event have been quite successful in getting students involved. So far, over 300 students have registered for the race, which will begin outside Harnwell College House and run through campus. And students are not the only ones getting involved. Rodin will be speaking at the race and firing the starting gun, and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman will be running in the race. "I've walked around this campus for 32 years... but this will be my first opportunity to run through the campus," Beeman said. "I look forward to it."