Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 20th 2008, 12:00am By Eli George

The Team Cure Challenge at Roswell Park Cancer Institute takes individuals and trains them to compete in a sporting event in Lake Tahoe, CA. The individuals who raise enough money, $3,600 each, get roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, nutrition tips, transportation, registration fees, a Champions’ Party, a breakfast, and a pasta dinner all provided for them by Roswell.

The way the challenge works is individuals can sign up, then work as a team to meet their fundraising goals, if they would like to. In a sense, anyone partaking in raising money for Roswell works as a team, but when it comes to the competition itself, it’s every person for themselves. There are around fifteen people from Buffalo headed to Lake Tahoe, including Jenna Witkowski and Chris DeLorenzo, a couple who teamed up to meet fundraising goals and to raise money for the institute.

Combined, the couple needs to raise $7,200. So far, they have been pretty successful in getting money together, but are still over $3,000 short of their goal. Neither seem to know what will happen if they fall short of their goal, but DeLorenzo promises to not let that happen. To help bridge the remaining gap, the duo is holding a raffle. The items in the raffle are a 42 inch plasma television set, a “Restaurants of Buffalo” package worth around $650 that includes thirteen restaurants, and a “Sports” package with 100 level Sabres tickets, autographed Sabres merchandise, a bike helmet, gift certificates, and more.

To get those items, DeLorenzo worked hard to get businesses to donate to the couples’ cause. “We have made a lot of requests of businesses to be supportive. It's not been easy. Often times it takes several trips to the same business to talk to the right person and then still leave with nothing. I made six separate trips to one with nothing to show for it. There a lot of people out there fundraising, which I think is fantastic, but businesses can only be supportive of just so many causes and it makes getting donations pretty difficult,” says DeLorenzo.

Their latest donation came as quite a surprise. Delorzenso says, “The one contribution to the raffle that has touched me the most just happened a couple of days ago. Jason Pominville found out what Jenna and I were doing and left a signed hockey stick on my front porch. I'm sure he gets lots of requests for things, and I'm sure that with the beginning of the hockey season coming up, he's very busy, but still he went out of his way to help us. It was a really nice gesture.”

The couple has been dating since March of this year, and Witkowski says, “Chris and I have a lot in common, we're both athletic, love doing something to benefit others or work for a cause we feel strongly for, and like a good challenge. We wanted to do something together that we could look back on and remember, and also something where we could push ourselves personally and set a goal to work toward. We knew the process would not be easy, but that we would have each other to fall back on when it would get tough.”

Both Witkowski and DeLorenzo attended school in the area and are in their 20s. Witkowski found her motivation for this challenge from a friend of hers who had been diagnosed with skin cancer a few years ago. Witkowski says, “She has since recovered, but when it happened initially, all I could think was "Why?" She was only 19 at the time and absolutely beautiful. It just didn't seem right, and initially the outlook was not good.” Her friend and her athleticism drew her to take the challenge.

DeLorenzo had caught the competitive bug after competing in the Buffalo half-marathon and was looking for another event. He explains his motivation by saying, “My mother passed away from cancer in 1996. In 2005, I was involved in some other fundraising. I had decided to ride my bicycle across the country and use it to raise money for a charitable cause, and was torn between a cancer-related organization and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I chose MAW and created Ride for Wishes 2005. Team Cure now offered me the opportunity to do something that honored my mother and allowed me to raise money for research that will benefit people dealing with the same challenges my mother faced while coping with the disease. My father recently wrote to me in a letter that if my mother were here today and was diagnosed with the same cancer now, she would have lived a much longer life due to the advancements that have been made. This reaffirmed to me that my involvement with Roswell Park is significant and helps carry me through the difficult parts of the fundraising and training.”

DeLorenzo and Witkowski have since learned a lot about Roswell since getting involved with this challenge. For example, Roswell treated 31,000 patients last year, one in three people will develop cancer in their lifetime, and today alone, 1,500 Americans will lose their life to cancer. With that knowledge, Witkowski says, “I encourage people to get involved in this program, even if they do not feel they are "super athletic." Just check it out and see what it is all about before totally ruling it out. It’s a fantastic experience and Roswell is there to support you every step of the way.”

The couple leaves for Lake Tahoe on September 25th and if you’d like to follow the couple’s fundraising progress, visit their team website. You can learn more about the Team Challenge here and don’t forget to buy raffle tickets for their fundraiser. Their raffle will be held at Roswell (to ensure its legitimacy) Wednesday, September 24th and the winner will be notified. Tickets for the raffle are only $5 and are available by e-mailing DeLorenzo or calling him at 348-4404.