On October 12 and 13, a team of 15 Bowdoin students and faculty members participated in the Dempsey Cancer Center Fundraising Challenge in Lewiston.
Each team member raised at least $150 for the Dempsey Cancer Center before cycling, running or walking in races of various distances.
In total, the event had 4,000 participants and raised $1.1 million for the charity.
Although this is the first time an official Bowdoin team has attended the Dempsey Challenge, individuals from the College have participated in years past.
To encourage student participation, the youth empowerment nonprofit Positive Tracks matched all funds raised by participants under age 23.
“I raised $250 myself, but with Positive Tracks I raised $500. It was a really cool incentive to raise money,” said Elizabeth Carew ’15, who helped organize Bowdoin’s involvement and ran the 5k last weekend.
The Challenge also included a festival with food, live music, vendors and informational booths on wellness and cancer prevention.
“And Patrick Dempsey actually showed up,” said Sivana Barron ’15, participated.
Bowdoin was also involved in a competition with Colby and Bates—the CBB Challenge—based on the number of participants from each school. Bates took home the Challenge College Cup
“Bates won by a lot, but it’s also in their backyard,” said Carew.
“Unfortunately, Colby and Bowdoin had break over the Challenge so because of that we lost a lot of support and weren’t able to get as many people as we had initially hoped,” said Barron.
“It was a lot of fun. I really hope more people come out to do it next year,” Barron added.
“It’s a really good cause and it’s really easy to raise money,” said Carew. “It was fun, it was a beautiful run […] and all of Lewiston was there to support us.”
The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing provides free services to those impacted by cancer and gets its funding from both this annual fundraising challenge, as well as individual donations, foundations and grants, and corporate sponsors.