Fundraisers for breast cancer
ride relay in Sawtooth Valley
By MATT FURBER
Express Staff Writer
Participating in a grandiose relay
that began mid-January in four different locations in North America, six
Idaho women rode through the Sawtooth Valley last week on their way to
Yellowstone to raise money for breast cancer research.
The separate legs of the event
began in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland; Squamish, British Columbia, Canada;
Fort Fairfield, Maine; and Trapper Creek, Alaska. The event is intended
to draw attention to women’s issues, with a focus on health. The money
raised will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in the
U.S. and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
In 2003, the first year of the
event, riders in Canada raised $175,000. In 2004, the event was
organized in the U.S. for the first time. As riders from all four points
gather at the final destination in Roseau, Minn., they will also
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Polaris snowmobile company, the
main sponsor of the event based in Roseau.
Polaris helped to organize the
event through state and provincial snowmobiling associations, said Dan
Hammerbeck, president of the Salmon River Snowmobile Club. Anyone
wishing to support the riders was welcome to tag along on any day of the
ride. The ride through Idaho went from Priest Lake, in the Idaho
Panhandle, to West Yellowstone, Mont.
Fundraisers were held along the
way. Alison Hammerbeck helped to raise about $1,000 dollars with the
help of the Stanley Mountain Mamas. A benefit in Coeur d’Alene, also in
northern Idaho, raised over $5000 in one night, said Mickey Sutton, one
of the official riders who was given a snowmobile to use for the event.
Sutton, who works at Saint
Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, said fundraising for breast
cancer research is important because one in nine women will develop
breast cancer, and one in seven will die from it.
The women riding through the
Sawtooth Valley Friday also embraced other women’s health issues as part
of their cause. Friday was national "Wear Red for Women Day". The
related campaign is intended to inform people that one in three women
over the age of 45 die of heart disease.
At each rest stop the official
fundraisers’ room and board was covered, but riders were required to
supply their own transportation and lodging from the start and finish of
their section of the relay.
"It is our humanitarian
responsibility to help with charities," said Dan Hammerbeck, who helped
guide the group of 22 riders through the Sawtooth Valley.
The Idaho riders planned to hand
off their sleds to a group of Wyoming riders at the entrance to West
Yellowstone.