MANCHESTER—On a beautiful Sunday morning in late February, 272 women and men gathered at Stratton Mountain’s Sun Bowl, donned snowshoes, trekked two miles on an improvised course and neatly raised more than $30,000 for Susan G. Komen VT-NH. Seventy-five percent of those funds will be granted to breast cancer organizations in Vermont and New Hampshire.
“All I can say is ‘Thank you!’ to everyone who made this weather-dependent event a huge success in what can only be called a challenging year, snow-wise,” said Terry Farkas, Komen VT-NH’s executive director. “That includes our fabulous snowshoers, of course; the incredible folks at our host mountain, Stratton, for pulling together a beautiful two-mile course on the fly; Tubbs for donating all the loaner snowshoes; and, without a doubt, our tireless volunteers.”
While most participants ambled along the wooded trail at a leisurely pace, others tackled the up-mountain-and-down course with remarkable speed. Mike Owens, for instance, came in first with a blistering time of 11:34, Siobhan Collins took silver with a remarkable finish of 15:43 and Jen Kuzmich came in third with a most respectable 17:43.
Team participation, always a major fundraising factor at Komen events, once again came through in the clutch. Twenty-one cheekily named and pinkly dressed teams stepped up and stepped out with the 18-member Freezin’ for a Reason juggernaut taking the no. 1 spot by pulling in a whopping $13,000.
