Sept. 18, 2013

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame women’s rowing team will host its third annual Pancreatic Cancer Erg-A-Thon Friday, Sept. 27 from 12 to 8 p.m. at Field House Mall, located behind the LaFortune Student Center on the Notre Dame campus.

The event will include a fastest time competition at a set distance on electric rowing machines. The Notre Dame rowing team will also have t-shirts available for purchase at Field House Mall.

Raffle tickets will be on sale throughout the afternoon, and prizes from the raffle include select field passes and game tickets to upcoming Notre Dame football games, autographed items from select Notre Dame head coaches, game tickets to future men’s and women’s basketball games, and the naming rights to one of the rowing team’s boats for the upcoming season (pending official name approval).

A total of 80 percent of the funds raised will go toward the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which specializes in pancreatic cancer awareness and research, with the remaining 20 percent being distributed to the undergraduate research laboratory at Notre Dame’s own Harper Cancer Research Institute. The institute and the College of Science will also match all donations by a 3-to-1 ratio.

“We have been incredibly privileged to be able to attend Notre Dame and represent Our Lady as part of the rowing team,” senior and event co-chair Anna VanEgmond said. “With that privilege comes a responsibility to pay it forward. Assistant coach Marnie Stahl had wanted to push the team to get more involved in service work, and after the deaths of the mothers of Sarah McShane (`13) and Kassen Delano Gunderman (Student-Athlete Academic Services) in 2010, sparked the idea for an annual “Erg-A-Thon” benefiting pancreatic cancer research.

“In the fall of 2011 our first event was held, and we raised a little more than $3,000 our first year. Our goal is to continue to raise more each year, creating awareness about the importance of research being the groundwork for beating cancer.”

For more information about the Erg-A-Thon, contact the Notre Dame rowing team at ndrowing1@nd.edu. Visit the Pancreatic Cancer Network at www.pancan.org for additional details on this great cause.

If you are interested in donating to the team’s drive to support pancreatic cancer research and cannot attend, checks can be made out to:

Women’s Rowing Office
University of Notre Dame Department of Athletics
203 Joyce Center, Purcell Pavilion
Notre Dame, IN 46556

Donations can also be made by visiting the team’s fundraising page at Firstgiving.com.

–ND–