FIVE + TEN = THANK YOU!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Here we go again! On August 3rd and 4th we’re riding the Pan-Mass Challenge (this will be: Dana’s #FIVE and Bob’s #TEN). For those of you not familiar, the PMC is an annual bike-a-thon that raises money for cancer research and care at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. In fact, it raises more money for charity than any single athletic fundraising event in the country, mainly because 100% of every rider-raised dollar goes directly to the cause! The ride itself is a two day, 192 mile trek across the state of Massachusetts from Sturbridge to Provincetown. This is the 40th annual PMC.

So many of you have helped us year after year and might remember that each year we always find some special heroes who inspire us while we ride. This year, our inspirations are our hero from 2009, Kammy and our neighbor at the Cape, Steve.

Kammy was our hero from our very first ride together in 2009. I happened to see Kammy last week - he’s amazing! He’s doing great and apparently, he’s quite a fisherman. Kammy and his family went through a lot together and now look forward to a bright future.

This year we also ride inspired by our neighbor at the Cape, Steve. He’s 81 years young. Steve has had a tough year with intestinal cancer, several surgeries and hospital stays but was determined to make his annual trip to the Cape and catch every fish in sight. Well, he made it and has been fishing every day. Steve said “I’m gonna catch some fish and then I’ll listen to my doctors”.  If Steve can fish every day, we can ride for two days.

We’re lucky that we are not riding alone – again, there is a big crew of riders and volunteers keeping us company this year! With Steve and all our past heroes going back to year one in our hearts, Dana and I will hit the pavement with Susan’s cousin David (#6), David’s daughter and 2018 Hero, Brittney (#4), David’s son Jeff (#2); Jeff Pravda (#8), Jeff’s son-in-law, Jesse – also known as Buttercup (#3); and Alex Wohler (#2), whose mother is a breast cancer survivor. We are also part of Team Perry, a team of over 70 riders whose fundraising efforts go directly to the Perry S. Levy Fellowship for Gastrointestinal Research. Perry passed away in 1999 at the age of 32 after a short and courageous battle with cancer of the small bowel.  Perry’s wife and his parents have made this a wonderful and successful tradition in their family.

The PMC is a family affair for us and we could not even consider riding without their help. Each year, Nana (#10) is at home cooking pounds and pounds of chicken cutlets – with no Andrew to assist this year, Nana is under lots of pressure. While Susan, Jeff’s wife, Nadine and Uncle Dick are taking care of us and chasing us around the Cape, Sara, Rebecca and Anna Pravda are volunteering with Kelsey making sure we have enough peanut butter and fluff sandwiches at the Wellfleet water stop.

Your donation is tax deductible and any amount will be greatly appreciated!  For easy on-line giving, please visit either pmc.org/egifts/RH0129 or DH0165 or to support both, please send one check payable to “PMC Jimmy Fund” and mail to:

Bob Haggett

91 Sturgeon River Road

Glastonbury Ct 06033

Thanks to you, we are riding this year remembering all our PMC Heroes, starting with young fisherman Kammy all the way to this year’s hero, the Cape’s best fisherman, Steve.

Thank you so much for all your support!!!

Bob Haggett