Dear Friends:

We are taking on the challenge, once again.  Every year we all face different adversities in our lives.  For some of us its small but for others they are struggling for their lives.  This year is not different: cancer is not taking the year off and it will steal the lives of more than 600,000 people in the US alone. So the PMC isn’t taking 2021 off and neither am I. In fact, our commitment to the mission of funding cancer research and care at Dana-Farber is more critical than ever. I will ride my own reimagined PMC. This weekend, I will join twenty of my Evans Crew teammates in the PMC virtual ride. This year is unique.  Instead of riding from Wellesley to Provincetown, we will cycle 75 miles on Saturday and 45 miles on Sunday through the streets of northern RI and MA streets.

I have seen first-hand how devastating cancer can be. It has touched my family, friends and young energetic children who had their whole life in front of them. For the seventh year I am excited and honored to ride with Team Evans Crew.

This team which is riding for the eighth year is made up of family and friends of Evan Mandeville. Evan was diagnosed with DIPG [http://www.danafarberbostonchildrens.org/Conditions/Brain-Tumor/Diffuse-pontine-glioma.aspx], an inoperable brain tumor in November of 2011 and passed away in November 2012 at the age of 11 years old. He was diagnosed by the doctor's at Dana-Farber while at Boston Children's Hospital. It was the clinical trials being performed at the Jimmy Fund Clinic and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that provided the only option for his rare disease. 

I am riding because I saw the struggle that Aimee and Tim and the entire family went though and I can’t begin to imagine losing a child. I am riding because I see the incredible strength this family has and what they have done to honor Evans memory. I am riding because I want to do my part in raising awareness and money to this incredible cause. To date this incredible team has raised over $1 million dollars because of great people like you.

I appreciate that the economic fallout has impacted everyone differently. If you can give, please do so. If you cannot this year, I understand.. And if you have the capacity to give a little more than you might normally, your generosity will make a tremendous difference this year.

100% of all donations made to Team Evan's Crew specifically funds DIPG research at Dana-Farber through the Evan T. Mandeville DIPG Research Fund. [http://nebula.wsimg.com/081b1966e18ec507bbd73f3fe3b633fe?AccessKeyId=EC89CFDFC271C211841D&disposition=0&alloworigin=1]

For more details please refer to the Team Evan’s Crew team profile page http://www2.pmc.org/profile/PC0227 and follow the team on FaceBook (under My Links), or on the web at http://www.evanscrew.org [http://www.evanscrew.org/].

I hope I can count on your support.

Thank you. Paul