2019 -
2019 - Back at it! Looking forward to the 2019 Pan Mass Challenge, again with my wife Gail. Both of us are excited to participate in the event while supporting a fantastic cause that also motivates us to get on our bikes.
There are many great causes out that one can choose to support, people generally gravitate towards one due to an event or experience that they or a person close to them have endured. For us, we have seen cancer impact so many and unfortunately, the list of people we know who are touched by it gets longer and longer each year. Hopefully, the contributions we get will help bring some cures closer.
The ride this year is August 3rd, all funds raised goes to Dana Farber, none goes to administrative costs. This will be my fifth ride and I would welcome your support.
2018
On the road again! This is year 4 for me, 2017, 2008 and 2007 were the years I participated in the past. Last year was the first two-day event in which I rode and the overall experience was even more up-lifting than I remembered from previous rides.
This year I'm excited to ride again, my wife Gail, daughter Kaitlyn and son Dan are joining me, too. We share reasons to ride but also have personal ones which together, motivate each of us. For me, it indulges my enjoyment of biking while providing perspective on the challenges others I know and care deeply about struggle, or struggled, with battling cancer and its side effects. Family members, close friends, and others all have been impacted by cancer, it is nondiscriminatory and ruthless in who and how it attacks. In a very small way, this is my contribution to the fight.
Boston’s Dana-Farber is one of the world’s preeminent cancer research and treatment center and all contributions PMC riders collect help fund research for cures.
There are many good causes, thank you for considering supporting my Ride in the 2018 PMC.
2017
I'm making a return to the PMC after a 9-year layoff. I first rode in the 2007 PMC, initially prodded to do so by a co-worker and then joined by my wife, and found it to be an incredible experience. My wife and I again rode the Wellesley to Bourne route in 2008, that time joined by our then 15 yr old son. Since then, life interfered and other endeavors came along.
In recent years cancer has extracted a large toll on family and friends. This past September my brother-in-law Brian, after a long bout with prostate cancer passed away, my brother's sister-in-law, Teresa, passed away early last summer after a long battle and more recently, my college roommate's 20-year-old son, Henry, succumbed. Close friends and neighbors, who mean so very much to me and my family, experienced their own battles, some still ongoing, some in the midst of apparent truces with their foe while other battles have been lost.
Selfishly, I enjoy bike riding, training for and riding in the PMC. The time on the bike provides me with the opportunity to think about the challenges that survivors, current battlers and their loved ones’ experience. I can't cure cancer or ease their pain but I can help support those who are working to do so.
My intentions this year were to ride with my daughter Kaitlyn ( http://profile.pmc.org/KC0363 ), but due injuries and her rehabilitation for back problems she can't ride. My son Dan is jumping into the breach in her absence and will join me for one of the two days on the bike. We are looking forward to the ride and excited about being among so many others united for such a worthy cause.
