Students raise big bucks

Every year, the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing holds a fundraiser in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, that helps provide their services free to cancer patients. Some Norwich students participate in the Dempsey Challenge.

"All of the services provided at the center, to not only cancer patients but their caregivers as well, and their families, could be provided to them at no costs," said Aimee Arsenault, the Dempsey Challenge event manager.

"This is made possible by the Dempsey Challenge event, and the fundraising that participants do through the Dempsey Challenge," said Arsenault.

The Dempsey Center was opened in March 2008, with the First Dempsey Challenge held in the fall of 2009, according to Arsenault.

"One of the reasons that Patrick Dempsey started this not-for-profit organization was because of the experience that he went through while his mom was being treated for ovarian cancer," Arsenault said.

To participate in the Dempsey Challenge, "you don't have to be a survivor, and you don't have to have cancer," said Monique Sullivan, a breast cancer survivor.

"To participate, all a person must do is go to dempseychallenge.org, register, and follow the instructions," said Maryke Moreau, a 20-year-old junior physics major from Lewiston, Maine.

The participants also have to pay a fee depending on which events they participate in. To walk or run, the fee is $35, and the fee to bike is $75, said Moreau.

The participants "also have to raise a minimum of $150, but as a reward, you get really cool stuff," Moreau said, adding that "all of these proceeds, of course, go to the Dempsey Center and their cancer research."

In 2010, the Dempsey Challenge raised just over $1.1 million. The 2011 donations have not all been added, but "initially we've raised at least a million, and we're saying a million and counting, because we do expect that number to go up by the first week in November," Arsenault said.

Moreau was one of four Norwich students who made the trip to Maine to participate in the Dempsey Challenge on Oct. 8-9. She participated in the 5K run and the 50-mile bike ride.

The Dempsey Challenge has "three different (events) that you can do: you can do a run, you can do a bike, or you can do both, both of those events are done on two different days," Moreau said.

Participants can chose from 5K, 10K and 15K distances, or bike 10, 25, 50, 70 or 100 miles.

Lisa Belanger, a 21-year-old junior psychology major from Manchester, N.H., also participated in the Dempsey Challenge, in the 5K walk.

"I thought it would be a good experience, to go out and see what is actually happening in the world," Belanger said. "There's also been cancer in my family, so I definitely wanted to support."

"Cancer is rough," said Belanger. During her mother's last diagnosis of cancer, her family received no monetary assistance, it was just the treatment.

The Dempsey Center is different because it "provides consoling for the family and patients, and rides to-and-from chemotherapy," Belanger said.

The Dempsey Center offers a range of services to cancer patients and their families.

"I think that they help with travel expenses, and I feel like they're more understanding, and more willing to help," said Abigail Windley, a 20-year-old senior criminal justice major from Newport, R.I.

Windley participated in the Dempsey Challenge 5K run as a survivor of cancer.

When asked why she participates, Windley states that she has "connections with cancer survivors and myself, and it was fun, it was beneficial."

There is a special incentive for participants who are under 23 years old called positive trackers, in which for every dollar that they raise will be doubled, she said.

Moreau said she raised $1,009.85, which got doubled by the positive trackers, while her team raised around $8,000.