Harvard Athletes Raise Money For Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation

 Last month, the Harvard Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) sponsored a fundraising event called Bench Press for Breast Cancer, helping to raise over $6,000 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. All 41 teams were invited to participate in the bench press challenge, where three representatives from each team completed as many repetitions as possible without stopping. The total number of reps were combined and represented the overall score of the entire team. Women lifted the bar and men lifted half of their body weight. Athletes were given pledge cards prior to the event to collect donations. These donations were either one-time contributions or a dollar amount per repetition completed.

The day began with the athletes entering a pink-decorated Palmer Dixon Gym to turn in the money they had previously collected. After an inspirational speech from women's basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, a breast cancer survivor, the competition began. Each team was assigned a weight lifting rack. As representatives benched, other teammates surrounded the rack cheering and encouraging their teammate to keep lifting. Many teams came dressed in uniform or pink attire. Freshman Caitlin Rowland from women's basketball took home the individual award, benching the bar 121 times, helping her team to become the overall winner in the lifting competition.  Softball took home the award for the most money raised, tallying over $2,400. Other top fundraising teams were men's tennis and men's basketball.

If you are interested in donating to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, please go to their website at Komen.org or call at 1-877 GO KOMEN.