Dear Friends and Family,
Well, I’m late in my fundraising this year. The good news is I’ve had the opportunity to be more engaged in planning for my duties as PMC Mass Maritime Academy co-leader then I have in a long time. The downside is I’ve inadvertently buried the lead by waiting this long. The PMC has officially broken the $1,000,000,000 fundraising mark with donations already received for this year’s ride.
45 years and one billion dollars all started with one man’s idea born out of the pain so many of us have endured. Anyone who has experienced the pain of losing a loved one to cancer knows you would do anything to stop this disease. It was one person though, who chose to get on a bike, gather up some friends and ride across Massachusetts. PMC Founder Billy Starr didn’t stop there, he kept going, year after year. He invented, and then perfected, a new way to raise money for cancer research. Books, podcasts and research papers have all tried to capture the magic formula of the PMC. Over 29 years I’ve seen every angle of it, as an intern, a full-time employee a volunteer and a rider. There are an incredible number of things the event gets right, but they are biproducts. For 45 years and one billion dollars Billy’s magic is simple, cancer still takes lives, so he has never stopped.
Personally, Billy Starr has done much more for me then providing this incredible platform for confronting my losses and turning them into hope. In addition to being a personal and professional mentor, he provided an internship to add to a Theatre major’s very thin student resume the summer of 1995, offered me the job in the fall of 1997 that got me back home when I really needed to be, and Billy and his wife Meredith played a very special role in helping us start our family in 2006.
So, this one is to Billy and one billion dollars.
As always, 100% of your donation to the PMC will go directly to the Dana Faber to fund cancer research. The easiest way to contribute is to click on this link http://www2.pmc.org/profile/WC0020 and give online.
Sincerely,
Wil
* Since 1980 the PMC has raised $1,000,000,000 for the Dana Farber and donates 100% of funds raised directly to cancer research.
