As a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., Bridget Tarnowski lost her aunt, Lori, to breast cancer.
Lori's passing was still fresh on Tarnowski's mind when she enrolled at North Carolina and joined the novice rowing squad a few months later, in August 2016. She didn't know then about the team's Erg-A-Thon, its annual fundraiser for breast cancer research.
The day of the event, though, she experienced it firsthand. And seeing the support her teammates showed for breast cancer awareness and research hit home.
"That's something that I kind of carry with me," said Tarnowski, now a junior, of Lori's death.