HERA Foundation Partners with Cycling Event Producer Swagger

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and two prestigious cycling events in Las Vegas will be raising awareness of the disease, as well as funds for the HERA Women’s Cancer Foundation. Swagger, the Georgia-based cycling event–production company responsible for the USA CRITS series, is now an event partner with HERA’s Partners in Action program, which includes events such as the Montrail Run Like a Girl series of trail-running events. Awareness and fundraising components to benefit HERA and the fight against ovarian cancer have been added as part of Swagger’s upcoming Mountain’s Edge Cactus Cup (www.cactuscuplasvegas.com), a three-day mountain bike race and festival held September 19–21 at Mountain’s Edge in Southwest Las Vegas and the USA CRITS Finals (www.usacritsfinals.com), the final event in an 11-race series to determine the world’s best male and female criterium racers, held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on September 25.

Raffles will be held during both events through which spectators and competitors will have a chance to win mountain bikes and other outdoor gear from HERA corporate partners such as REI. A portion of the funds raised will remain in Las Vegas to support local ovarian-cancer programs as well as funding HERA’s OSB1 scientific grant program. Race numbers for female competitors will be teal, the official color of the fight against ovarian cancer. Women also can wear teal ovarian-cancer bracelets while riding.

Both events take place in conjunction with the Interbike International Bicycle Expo.

“Cycling events are an effective way to raise awareness for a cause, so to enable HERA to deliver its message to educate the public is great for us,” explains Ravi Rajcoomar, managing director of Swagger. “Our events are about the excitement of bike racing. But if they can also cultivate an environment that enables more women to have a healthy future, then they become valuable in a more global manner.”

“We are honored to have a leader in the cycling-event world like Swagger join HERA in the Partners in Action program,” says Sean Patrick, HERA founder and ovarian cancer survivor. “Raising awareness of the disease’s symptoms is critical, and the events enable us to reach out to a broad base of women to deliver our message.”

About Swagger
The USA CRITS Finals is produced by Swagger, a company with more than 50 years of combined experience as a sports-marketing and event-management organization. The nation’s leading producer of criterium racing, Swagger currently produces over 40 criterium events, including America’s premier criterium, the Twilight Criterium in Athens, Ga., a race that’s enjoyed tremendous success since 1980.


About HERA Partners in Action
The HERA Partners in Action program enables companies to “give back” a portion of sales from a product or group of products to the HERA Women’s Cancer Foundation. Designated Partners in Action products include hangtags that educate consumers about ovarian cancer facts and symptoms. The Partners in Action program includes outdoor gear manufacturers such as Bronwen, BlueWater Ropes, www.climbingholds.com, Dare to Dream Expedition, Etch, Evolv, Her Sports magazine, MadRock, Petzl, Women’s Adventure magazine and Zensah Performance Apparel. For more information, contact Stephanie Forte at Forte Creative Media, 702.898.2547.

About the HERA Foundation
The HERA (Health, Empowerment, Research and Awareness) Foundation is a registered 501 (c) 3, whose mission is to stop the loss of mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, partners and girlfriends from ovarian cancer by empowering women to take control of their health, empowering the medical community to find new directions in ovarian cancer research and empowering communities to provide support. For more information, visit www.herafoundation.org. To schedule an interview with HERA Foundation founder Sean Patrick, please call 970.948.7360.