Event partners.

Established in 2007, the annual Swim Across America Fairfield County (SAA-FC) Open Water Swim event has empowered hundreds of swimmers and volunteers to raise more than $5 million for Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy. The event takes place each year in the Long Island Sound.

Current ACGT Research Fellows funded by SAA-FC include:

• Juan Fueyo, MD (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
• Stephen Gottschalk, MD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
• Sidi Chen, PhD (Yale University)
• Brian Brown, PhD (Mount Sinai)

Over the last 15 years, ACGT Research Fellows funded by Swim Across America include: Noriyuki Kasahara, MD, PhD (University of California, San Francisco); Khalid Shah, PhD, MSc (Harvard Medical School); Thomas Kipps, MD, PhD (University of California, San Diego); Arnob Banerjee, MD, PhD (University of Maryland School); John Bell, PhD (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute); Fan Yang, PhD (Stanford University); Samuel Katz, MD, PhD (Yale University School of Medicine); Crystal Mackall, MD (Stanford University); and Greg Delgoffe, PhD (University of Pittsburgh).

Whether you are a veteran swimmer or you’re looking to do your first open water swim or volunteer, we welcome you to help us “Make Waves to Fight Cancer.” The date of SAA-FC Open Water Swim 2023 was Saturday, June 24.

With a mission to “Ride Bikes. End Cancer,” Leave It On The Road (LIOTR) is an elite long-distance cycling event founded in 2013 by Michael Tabtabai of Portland, OR, Andrew Hudon of Boulder, CO, and a cohort of cycling enthusiasts to raise money for cancer research.

Since 2018, the non-profit group’s fundraising rides have benefited Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy. Leave It on the Road has donated close to $139,000, including $39,000 in 2022, to help today’s most innovative researchers in advancing transformative approaches to curing cancer.

100% of donations from Leave It on the Road go directly to ACGT Research Fellows and research programs.

Inspired by their mother’s courageous battle with liposarcoma cancer, Ali, Matt and Jackie Landes organized the first annual Wendy Walk in 2010. Since then, their energy has galvanized hundreds of individuals in New York, Florida and California to walk for sarcoma research.

Wendy Walk is one of the few annual events dedicated to raising money for sarcoma research. There have been more than 40 walks with more than 10,000 walkers since the inaugural event in 2010. Wendy Walk has raised more than $610,000 to benefit Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy.

ACGT Research Fellows funded by Wendy Walk include:

• Stephen Gottschalk, MD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
• Crystal Mackall, MD (Stanford University)
• Seth Pollack, MD (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, now at Northwestern University)

The date of Wendy Walk 2023 has not been announced yet.

Play for P.I.N.K. is an annual golf and tennis tournament dedicated to raising money for breast cancer and pancreatic cancer research. The event began as a golf tournament in 1990 with a focus on breast cancer.

In 2019, the event became an annual golf and tennis tournament, adding purple (official color of pancreatic cancer) to their pink (official color of breast cancer) to honor and remember a beloved committee member, Bonnie Bancroft, who was lost to pancreatic cancer in 2020.

Money raised by Play for P.I.N.K. benefits Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy in support of cell and gene therapy research for pancreatic cancer. Players gather at Innis Arden Golf Club in Old Greenwich, CT, and sell raffle tickets purchased online and during the event.

The fourth Innis Arden Golf Club Play for P.I.N.K. and Purple golf and tennis event was held in September 2022. The 2023 event will be this year on August 12.