Dozens of local college, high school and youth swimmers filled Wilmington College's swimming pool to raise funds and awareness for sarcoma cancer research Tuesday (Nov. 13) as participants in the seventh annual Hour of Power Swimming Relay.

Members of the Wilmington College, Wilmington High School and Clinton County YMCA swim teams, along a number of former competitive swimmers, swam 50-yard distances in a continuous relay from 5 to 6 p.m.

James "Trip" Breen, WC's swim coach and director of aquatics, said the event will raise several hundred dollars for the Ted Mullin Fund for Pediatric Sarcoma Cancer Research at the Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm all the swimmers brought to the event," he said, noting that increasing awareness of pediatric cancer and working together for a good cause complements in importance the funds raised. "The relay swimmers gave an all-out effort in support of this worthy cause."

The Wilmington relay coincided with Hours of Power involving as many as 10,000 swimmers in the United States. In 2011, the ever-growing Hour of Power featured some 8,000 swimmers representing 107 college teams, 19 high school teams, 27 clubs teams across the nation, in addition to seven other student teams from around the world.

The Hour of Power Relay is held in honor of Carleton College swimmer Ted Mullin, who died in 2006 from sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer.