Industry News: Fourth Annual Hour of Power Relay for Cancer Research Set for November 10

By Chris DeSantis

ATLANTA, Georgia, October 13. SWIMMING World Magazine has graciously allowed me this space to make a plea, and so I will make it. In 2005, I met someone who undeniably changed my life. His name was Ted Mullin. I was about to finish my senior year at Colby College, captain of my team, and dreaming of a life in swimming after college. Ted was there at the beginning of the year, visiting his little brother and my training partner, Evan. Ted had successfully battled back from a bout with cancer a few years before, but now it was back. I didn't completely understand it at the time, but Ted put a number of things in perspective for me.

Here was a guy who was the same age as me, and yet I was assured of all the things that were in doubt for him. Ted wanted to go back to school and finish his senior year as captain of his team, but it was not in the cards. Ted loved the sport and wanted to share that with other people. His was a life very much like many of the athletes I swam with and now coach. That is why I think this event can be so great. It is an opportunity for many important things: to raise money for a worthy cause, perhaps to put your life in perspective, and to uplift yourself, your teammates, and the Mullin family.

The Carleton College swimming and diving teams invite all swim teams (college, high school and club) to participate in the "Hour of Power" in honor of those who are fighting or have succumbed to cancer, including former Carleton teammate Edward H. "Ted" Mullin, who passed away from synovial sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer, in September 2006.

It is nearly impossible to find anyone whose life has not been touched by cancer, whether it is through a friend or a family member. You now have one more way to fight back: the fourth annual Ted Mullin "Leave it in the Pool" Hour of Power Relay for Pediatric Sarcoma Research set for Tuesday, Nov. 10.

The event is held in your home pool and is a one-hour, all-out, leave-it-in-the-pool practice consisting of continuous relays, using any stroke. The "Hour of Power" occurs simultaneously at numerous pools across the country with two preferred time frames (5 p.m. EST/4 p.m. CST or 5 p.m. MST/4 p.m. PST) so that your team is participating at the same time as thousands of others across the nation. If the national event date does not work within a team's schedule, it may select a date and time better suited to its needs.

First held on Nov. 7, 2006, the "Hour of Power" Relay has grown from 15 teams the first year to 104 teams and nearly 6,000 student-athletes on three continents in 2008.

All teams are invited to get involved whether or not they raise funds, but over the past three years, participants in the "Hour of Power" raised more than $110,000 for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Research at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital where Ted received treatment. The "Hour of Power" aims to promote team spirit and to generate awareness of sarcoma and its terminal impact on the lives of young adults.

All interested teams are invited to register for the "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

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