DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat Nearly 800 students and community members, including this group of greek students, took part in Catwalk yesterday morning. Participants in the walk raised money for the Bobbi Olson Endowment Fund, which promotes cancer awareness and research.

UA basketball coach Lute Olson took a walk yesterday with hundreds of people around the UA campus.

The third annual CatWalk included Olson and nearly 800 walkers from sororities, fraternities and the UA public.

By charging a $15 entry fee, the walk was able to raise $12,000 for the Bobbi Olson Endowment Fund, which goes toward research at the Arizona Cancer Center.

The event began three years ago, by the greek community, after the death of Olson's wife, Bobbi Olson. She was given a late diagnosis of ovarian cancer, and died in 2001.

This year, for the first time, the event was open to the community.

"We didn't find a reason for the event to only be for the greeks; we can have more money, more participation, and more awareness with public involvement," said Zadok Huang, Interfraternity Council programming vice president.

Mariel Furst, Panhellenic programming vice president agreed.

"It is such a great event, we wanted to open it up and not make it exclusive but part of the UA community, so everyone can be a part of a great cause and a great event," Furst, a psychology senior, said.

Clint Walls, IFC public relations vice president, said that in previous years, the walk has been treated like a joke since it was only on greek row.

Having it open to the public has turned it into a real walk, he added.

Just like last year, sororities and fraternities are required to participate in the event.

"Twenty percent of sororities and fraternities chapters must participate, but there is a lot more here than that; everyone wants to come out," Walls, a pre-physiology sophomore, said.

And since the event is now part of Greek Week, members of sororities and fraternities earn points for participating.

"Adding it to Greek Week was a great idea; people want to be here and show their spirit," Furst said.

Those participating in the event shared the same sentiment.

"It's fun and it's easy to do for raising as much money as it does," said Chris Pierce, aerospace engineering junior and member of Chi Phi fraternity.

Though the walk was open to the public, most of those participating were greek.

"Judging from what I see, few people showed up; hopefully they'll be more of a turnout, but still it's mostly greeks," Walls said.

Furst said that greeks made sure to publicize the event.

"We had ads and we put up 500 fliers around campus. People did know; it was up to them if they wanted to come or not," Furst said.

Even with few members from the public joining, coordinators of the event said they were happy with the overall outcome.

"It's better than expected this year; there's more people than last year," Furst said.

Olson, in his speech before the walk, said that giving money to the cancer center would help them find ways to detect cancer earlier.

Cancer research is on the verge of a big breakthrough, and not just with ovarian cancer, Olson said.

Right now cancer researchers have a test in front of the federal government that is able to determine the presence of cancer with one drop of blood. It's almost 100 percent accurate in detecting the presence of cancer, Olson said.

"Good things happen, but the only way is through money," Olson said. "I can't thank you enough for all you've done in the last few years. There are tremendous strides in cancer research because of things like this."