About 300 participants ran or walked across campus yesterday to raise money for the Rena Rowan Breast Center, in the fifth annual Rena Rowan Ribbon Run.
The Panhellenic Council-sponsored five-kilometer run typically features hundreds of campus sorority and fraternity members, a DJ and free food. This year was no different, with the race starting at 1 p.m. at the compass on Locust Walk and finishing at Huntsman Hall.
"I thought the event was fantastic; it was the best organized run I've seen yet," InterFraternity Council President Conor O'Callaghan said. "I thought the atmosphere and the course were great," the Wharton and Engineering senior added.
While most of the runners were sorority sisters, about 50 fraternity brothers were in the pack. College senior Scott Sebens won the race with a time of 14 minutes and 57 seconds.
Defending women's champion Dana McCurdy noted that she did beat out some of the men, while retaining her title with a time of 18 minutes and 30 seconds.
"I'm also on the track team," she said. "I won last year as well, but I want to remind people that they should keep registering" to support the cause.
The Rowan Center, located in the Penn Tower, has been Panhel's central philanthropic focus for several years now, partially at the behest of former University President Judith Rodin. When she learned that the center would be built on campus, she encouraged Panhel's executive board to get involved.
Breast cancer "directly impacts so many women, not just women who are infected themselves," McCurdy said. "It's a great cause for us to take up."
The center is unusual in that its focus is not on research and finding a cure for breast cancer, but rather on providing support for victims of the disease.
"Rena Rowan is an incredible organization, because they [work] towards patient care and with survivors of breast cancer," Panhel President Erica Shmerler said.
Organizers noted that non-research-based centers rely more heavily on fundraisers like yesterday's run than scientific institutions do.
"It's easier to get a million dollar research grant, but much harder to get 100 dollars here and there," event organizer and College senior Rosalie Candido said.
Shmerler said that the race raised around $5,000, though Panhel had not completely counted the returns. She expects that the proceeds from the past five years of races combined will break the $50,000 mark that Panhel first set when it began planning the event.
"I'm very pleased -- it's such a wonderful group, people were so excited about it," Shmerler said. "It was a much better turnout than I expected."
