Jonathan Gordon, 114 Day Street, Newton, MA 02466

On August 3rd and 4th, I will ride in my 27th Pan Mass Challenge, biking 170 miles from Wellesley MA to Provincetown, MA. Founded in 1980, the PMC has raised $972 million for cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This year over 6400 PMC cyclists will raise $75 million dollars for the Dana-Farber, bringing the total to over a billion dollars!

I joined Cadence Design Systems in 1991 and was assigned to an office with Chris Spear. Chris and I became fast friends. We had a similar sense of humor and many similar interests. Chris was already an avid cyclist and was one of the very early PMC riders. He convinced me to participate in my very first PMC ride, back in 1998. My bike was old and heavy, and I had not trained quite enough, but I persevered. Barely. Eventually I got fast enough that I could ride with Chris, if he was willing to pedal at ¾ speed. Our friendship grew to include hiking, camping, going to concerts, and riding the PMC together. Chris was one of the foremost authorities on hardware description languages and the author of a best-selling book on hardware programming. His company sent him around the world to train engineers in advanced programming techniques. His bike went with him on these trips – Israel, Singapore, France. Everywhere. On his most recent trip he went on what turned out to be his last ride as he unexpectedly passed away after finishing his ride, leaving his legion of friends, co-workers, students, and family crestfallen. I could not ask for a better friend. This year I am riding for Chris, who also happened to be a cancer survivor. When I meet up with Fred Flintstone I will yell “Yabba Dabba Doo” just like you would have, except with tears streaming down my face.

Over the past 26 years your donations have provided over $275,000 for cancer research and patient treatment. I set a goal to raise another $10,000 this year. The PMC donates 100% of every rider-raised dollar directly to the Dana-Farber, so your donations will make the maximum impact possible. You can donate at http://www.pmc.org/egifts/ using my name or my rider ID, JG0063. If you would prefer to send a check, please make it out to PMC and send it to my home address, and don’t forget to fill out your employer’s matching gift form. You can learn more about the PMC and its mission at https://www.pmc.org/ . Thanks to you, we’re getting closer by the mile.