Paddling for a Cure in Bellingham Bay
We Ride the Teal Wave again Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. Bring your own or rent a kayak, standup paddleboard, canoe—any nonmotorized watercraft—and join us for a fun paddle to raise awareness and research funding for low-grade serous ovarian cancer.
REGISTER at STAAROC.CO/TEALWAVE
The Community Boating Center is generously offering a discounted rate on rentals—just $10 for the afternoon. Rent yours here. (Please note, to rent a vessel and participate in the event, you must register with CBC as well as with Ride the Teal Wave.)
All donations benefit STAAR Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer.
Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025
Schedule
1:30 pm: Sign in at the Community Boating Center. Pick up a teal T-shirt and flag.
2 pm: Launch from the Fairhaven boat ramp.
2-4 pm: Paddle along the shore of Bellingham Bay. Gather in flotillas. Take pictures. Wave a flag. Have fun.
5-7 pm: Grab a drink and a snack and win door prizes at Skylark’s Hidden Cafe. Enjoy music from the J.P. Falcon Band.
The first 50 people to arrive will receive a teal T-shirt that will magically transform them into a Human Billboard, educating people about the often overlooked symptoms of ovarian cancer.
| STAAR Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer was founded in 2020 when three women facing low-grade serous ovarian cancer recognized the urgent need for dedicated funding and support—a need unmet by the larger charities |
In 2022, STAAR raised funds to award $76,000 to the University of Texas MD Anderson research into Trametinib resistance, and $250,000 to Memorial Sloan Kettering to research which patients are more likely to respond to chemotherapy. In 2023, we awarded $100,000 to the Stephenson Cancer Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences for a combination drug trial including Fulvestrant, as well as an additional $50,000 to the Trametinib resistance study at MD Anderson.
In 2025, STAAR awarded more than $400,000 in grants. Thanks to donors, $150,000 was awarded to the University of Pennsylvania for a study on the effectiveness of a new drug that inhibits cancer pathways in patients with all KRAS mutations. Over the next three years, STAAR will award the University of Chicago $150,000 for a high-throughput screening to identify potential drugs. For the first time, STAAR partnered with another patient-driven nonprofit, Not These Ovaries, to fund $115,000 to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to sequence full-length RNA transcripts to identify biomarkers to determine whether patients will respond to chemotherapy or endocrine therapy.
Read about the inaugural Ride the Teal Wave in Cascadia Daily News.
Thank you to the Lummi Nation for generously sponsoring Ride the Teal Wave 2024.
We’re also grateful to return sponsors PeaceHealth, Barron Quinn Blackwood, and WECU
Prize sponsors included: Haggen, Moondance Sea Kayak Adventures, Green Labyrinth Sanctuary, Chrysalis Inn Spa, Fairhaven Runners and Walkers, Sirena Gelato, Pure Bliss Desserts, La Fiamma, Pickford Film Center, Body Boat Blade, Sea Kayak Baja Mexico.
When we started planning the inaugural Paddle for a Cure on Bellingham Bay in 2022, to raise awareness and research funding for low-grade ovarian cancer, I reached out to all the low-graders I knew of in the region. One of them was Jill Scott, who happened to live just a county away from Bellingham and also was receiving treatment at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Unfortunately, Jill had ongoing complications following her surgery and was unable to participate. She promised to “share the hell out of it” anyway.
A few weeks after the event where we had hoped to meet Jill in person, she passed away from this relentless disease. Our hearts are broken and we send our love to her family, knowing that she deserved more time. She died within a year of her diagnosis.
Ride the Teal Wave benefits STAAR Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer. Donations support research for effective treatments to improve the outcomes for people like Jill—and us—who have low-grade serous ovarian cancer.
Learn more about the symptoms of ovarian cancer and why it’s mislabeled a Silent Killer.
Kari Neumeyer 