Year 15 - YES! The mission continues
Riding with facemasks? Hand sanitizing? Distancing? DIY routes in small groups? After 14 years I thought I had been through all manner of catastrophes at the PMC (200 miles riding with a separated shoulder, multiple flat tires in a single day, bike crashes and ambulance calls, hypothermia, torrential rains, outriding tornados, falling bigtop tents, running out of food, washed out campsites...), but a pandemic? What's next, locusts?
Come what may, I'm here for my PMC year 15 and hope to be around for 16 and whatever curveball that brings! (I just hope it's not locusts! Or snakes, or spiders, or zombies...argh! :-))
PMC in the year of Covid-19?
Covid-19 is a catastrophe, 'but Beating Cancer' is a mission! Covid-19, terrible on so many health and economic levels, will kill 150,000 people in the US before the earliest vaccine can be found. But Cancer kills 600,000+ people in the US EVERY year. (CDC est. 630,000 cancer deaths;1.9 million new cases in 2020) We need the PMC mission more than ever --the PMC sends 100% of ALL your donations directly to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I can tell you from making platelet donations at the DFCI (I ride on the Patriots Platelet Pedaler team) that their job is even harder with all the covid protocols!
Who Are You Riding For?
For 15 years, I've told the stories of family members and friends lost to cancer -- my mom, my brother-in law, my stepmom, my boss, my daughter's soccer coach (and my friend), and more. AND THE LIST NEVER GETS SHORTER. We can't bring back our loved ones who died from cancer. But until my last days, I will treasure their memories and hate the cancer that took them. All we can do is try to make a difference for the future.
My PMC in the year of Covid
We don't know the route yet, but I do know my sister, Marianne, and I WILL RIDE TOGETHER in memory our our mom, Ruth and all our lost friends. Her first PMC will be a strange one, but we've been doing the 'usual' miles of training, and the first week of August we'll do two days of riding between 100-200 miles. Supporting our ride and with your help, we will make that difference. There will be no PMC cheering crowds, no kids holding "Without for you, I wouldn't be here" signs, no bigtop tents, no parties, bands, and ferry rides. Just us, and all throughout Massachusetts, a lot of other DIY-PMCers trying their best to build a better world with the Dana Farber.
The PMC challenge - Closer by the mile
The challenge part of the PMC is stepping outside of our little life bubbles and ASKING -- For your help in the mission against cancer. Cancer might not be cured in time for you or me or Marianne, but with all of us together, we might have a cure in time for my daughters, or their kid’s kids. I DO KNOW -- Cancer will never cure itself! We write the future by what we do today.
So, please join us -- me, Marianne, all the other DIY PMC riders -- in this year's mission at: https://profile.pmc.org/KS0135
(or send a check made out to 'Pan-Mass Challenge' or 'Jimmy Fund' to my home address (1 Sorelle Pl, Burlington, MA 01803), and together we will be Closer By The Mile to beating cancer.
Best wishes, (please stay in good health and wear that mask!), and Ride On!
Thanks for your support!
-Kevin
