Colby swim teams to compete in "Hour of Power"

WATERVILLE, Maine --- The Colby College swimming and diving teams and head coach Tom Burton will once again be part of the Sixth Annual "Ted Mullin Hour of Power Relay" event, honoring those who are fighting or have succumbed to cancer.
 
The event will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Colby swimming pool. The Mules, one of 15 original schools to participate in all six events, will be one of more than 150 colleges and high schools to swim tomorrow at their schools. Former Colby swimmers Even Mullin and Catherine Mullin were the siblings of Ted, who passed away from synovial sarcoma (rare soft-tissue cancer) in 2006.
 
As of Monday, 151 teams with more than 7,200 athletes have registered to participate Tuesday. Registration is still underway and more teams are expected to take part. Carleton College, the school where Ted competed, is sponsoring the event.
 
Each team will swim in their own pool in a one-hour, all-out, leave-it-in-the-pool practice consisting of continuous relays, using any stroke.

A primary goal of the event is to raise awareness and generate funds for research conducted at the University of Chicago (U of C) into finding treatments and cures for sarcoma, the type of soft-tissue cancer that took the life of Ted Mullin and afflicts the lives of many young people. All teams are invited to get involved in the “Hour of Power” whether or not they decide to raise funds. Since the event began five years ago, participants have raised more than $265,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago where Ted received treatment. The “Hour of Power” also aims to promote team spirit and to generate awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that disproportionately affects adolescents and young adults.

Funds raised during the event act as seed funding for U of C’s pediatric sarcoma research program. The program brings together oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists and physician scientists who have a particular interest in adolescents and young adults with sarcoma, allowing collaborative efforts in the identification of the causes of sarcoma at the most basic molecular and cellular levels.

Interested collegiate, high school and club teams are invited to register for the 2011 “Hour of Power” and find more information at http://go.carleton.edu/HourOfPower. You can also contact Carleton College head coach Andy Clark at aclark@carleton.edu or Rick Mullin at rmullin9@comcast.net.