This article is the first in a 3 part series profiling women involved with the SpinOdyssey /ZumbaOdyssey 2010 breast cancer fundraising event on March 7^th at INTENSITY Fitness and Tennis Club in Norwalk, CT

This year will mark the 11^th annual SpinOdyssey. The all day event will be held at INTENSITY Fitness and Tennis Club in Norwalk on Sunday, March 7^th.   What started out as a celebration of the new millennium by Fairfield County fitness instructors Delia Thompson and Amelie Babkie has turned in to one of this area’s most notable fundraisers benefiting American Cancer Society breast cancer research.  Eleven years ago, Thompson and Babkie were not only inspired by their students’ enthusiasm for Spinning, an ultra-endurance concept of indoor cycling classes that began in the 1980s when athlete Jonathan Goldberg developed the program, but by the personal battle with breast cancer that Thompson’s sister was waging at the time. They decided to host the first “Millennium Ride” on January 1, 2000. Fifty bikes and riders were featured and $5,244.00 was raised, all of which was donated.   Eleven years and over $2 million dollars later, SpinOdyssey has been successful in providing funding for breast cancer research and related breast cancer causes.

Last year local fitness and Zumba Master Class instructor Emm Koteka-Wiki was approached about incorporating a ZumbaOdyssey to run concurrently alongside the SpinOdyssey. She jumped, or perhaps more appropriately put, she “Zumba’d” at the chance to become involved. Born in the Cook Islands, a chain of 15 Polynesian islands in the South Pacific, Koteka-Wiki grew up speaking the native Maori and her own life has been an odyssey in and of itself.  Before moving to Westport in 2005, Koteka-Wiki spent 16 years traveling all over the world with her husband Pae Wiki, who works for the U.N. as Chief Security Coordinator for East Africa, and their three daughters.  In each of the many countries where her husband’s work took them (including Israel, Southern Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Croatia, Cambodia and Kenya) Koteka-Wiki taught fitness and dancing classes.  She attributes her passion and dedication to fitness and dance as the result of growing up in a French Tahitian /German /Polynesian family surrounded by athletes, dancers, singers and performers. 

In 2007 while living in Westport and largely devoting her time to being a “stay-at-home” mom, Koteka-Wiki first heard of Zumba.  Zumba is an aerobic fitness program created in the 1990s by celebrity fitness trainer Beto Perez.  Perez was inspired largely in part by dance movements from his native Cali, Columbia.  Dance is also what originally drew Koteka-Wiki to Zumba. As soon as she discovered how much fun it was, she was addicted and went on to become a trained and certified Zumba instructor. Koteka-Wiki is exuberant about her instruction, “My Zumba classes fuse hypnotic Latin rhythms and easy to follow dance moves.  Let loose, rock, have a blast and burn calories.”  And that’s exactly what she intends to do for the second year in a row.  Not only will she be rocking and dancing her heart out as she leads the ZumbaOdyssey, but she will be instructing 180 capacity participants during four 1 hour sessions for a total of four straight highly invigorating Zumba hours! 

Yet despite how much fun Koteka-Wiki is planning to have at the ZumbaOdyssey, “It feels more like a party than anything else. You’ll be sweating and fitness kind of sneaks up on you without you evening realizing it,” she is also mindful of the cause that the fundraiser benefits.  Breast cancer also sneaks up. Something Koteka-Wiki has witnessed first hand in her family. Her mother’s youngest sister died from the disease 4 years ago at the age of 54.  Currently both her uncle’s wife and her father’s second wife are undergoing treatment for breast cancer while another aunt continues to recover from a double mastectomy last year.  Many members of Koteka-Wiki’s Zumba classes have also undergone personal battles with breast cancer. “Since the nature of Zumba promotes a positive, uplifting and healthy lifestyle, I want to bring the same positive, uplifting and healthy lifestyle to breast cancer survivors who need various resources, adequate education and the tools to live a healthy life.  Lack of exercise, good nutrition and medical help for a breast cancer survivor can lead to recurrence, depression and other diseases.”

Currently, Koteka-Wiki is working on a proposal to provide breast cancer survivors with Zumba lessons free of cost.  She feels that it is important that not only breast cancer research be addressed but follow-up support for survivors as well. 

As a female and mother of three daughters, having lost a fourth in infancy to meningitis due to lack of proper medical treatment in the Cook Islands, Koteka-Wiki is concerned with the future.  Her hope is that there will be a cure before her daughters ever confront the disease.  She is dedicated to doing whatever she can to raise awareness and support.  Koteka-Wiki, is part of the all volunteer-run SpinOdyssey/ZumbaOdyssey team which donates 100% of all pledges from the event to breast cancer causes.  “I am part of this team and will be ‘zumba-ing’ to raise funds for this worthy cause. I love to dance and enjoy giving back to the community.  So if anyone loves to dance then the ZumbaOdyssey against breast cancer is just what they need to get into!” 

This woman’s unique personal odyssey that began 6,985 miles away on the Cook Islands  is just one of the many examples of  how people from all over the world come together in the fight against breast cancer  To learn more about the SpinOdyssey/ZumbaOdyssey and register or volunteer for the event go to: www.spinodyssey.org. To  find out more about Emm Koteka-Wiki and her Zumba instruction go to:  www.zumbaodyssey.com.