Rena Rowan Run raises money for breast cancer

The fourth annual Rena Rowan Ribbon Run saw 216 runners cross the finish line in front of Huntsman Hall yesterday.

The race attracted 277 entrants in all, and the Panhellenic Council will donate the money -- which is expected to compare to the past few years' numbers of several thousand dollars -- to Penn's Rena Rowan Breast Center.

Most runners cited the charity as a reason for participation, and for a few others, the cause hit especially close to home.

"My mother's a breast cancer survivor," Temple University law student Justin Shilliday said.

The race kicked off at 1 p.m., as Wharton and Engineering senior Kunal Gupta, a Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity member, blasted Survivor's Eye of the Tiger from his DJ booth on Locust Walk.

This is the second year that Gupta has provided music for the event. "I love to do it, and my fraternity is very involved with [the Rena Rowan Ribbon run] as well."

Clocking in at 15 minutes and 49 seconds, InterFraternity Council Vice President Conor O'Callaghan won the race.

"I like to run, and it was a great cause," said O'Callaghan, a Wharton and Engineering junior and a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity -- which claimed the first three finishers.

College sophomore and Alpha Phi member Dana McCurdy was the first female finisher with a time of 19:02.

With the race falling on Family Weekend, many students' families participated in the race.

"We think it's a good cause, and we like to exercise," said Mark Birnbaum, father of College sophomore and Sigma Delta Tau member Ashley Birnbaum.

"It's nice to see that it's becoming a tradition," Panhel President and College senior Elizabeth Kimmelman said of the race.

Lea Shafer, associate director of programming for the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, added that "it seems each year we have more men, which is nice.... It's not just something women do."

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