Dear Friends, Loved Ones, and Dana Farber Supporters—

This year is like so many others—July finds me dodging adventure vans and Winnebagos, lobster trap trailers and landscaping crews, as I take my training rides on the narrow tarmac of the Maine coast. It also seems to be when I start writing to you to ask for your continued support for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, as I prepare to be involved, once again, in the annual Pan-Mass Challenge!!

For eight years beginning in 2017, in some way, I have been a part of this amazing event—the largest and most successful of its kind—riding from Sturbridge to Provincetown as part of a peloton of thousands of cyclists and volunteers. These amazing events allow people all over the world to join forces and raise both funds and awareness of the amazing work beginning at DF, which winds its way through cancer treatment and research organizations worldwide.

This year, the PMC has a fundraising goal of $76 million. Since 2017—both as an individual rider on the road from Sturbridge to Provincetown or on a reimagined route closer to home here in Maine—I have raised almost $56,000—and in 2024, with your stalwart, unflagging support, email forwards, and Facebook shares, I raised over $11,000!!!

HOWEVER…This year, my involvement will be a little different—although that first weekend in August will always hold firm in my heart as PMC weekend, and I hope to be on the sidelines in Truro cheering on my brother and sister riders instead of riding on the big weekend which has been a huge part of my life for so many years now.

I have chosen—for 2025, anyway—to approach the PMC Experience by doing something a little different. This year, on October 4 in Lenox, Massachusetts, I will be riding PMC Unpaved—a Pan-Mass Challenge off-road cycling fundraising event inaugurated in 2022, and now entering its fourth year!

I know! Amazing right!?!

It’s like PMC had a baby sister—a muddy, gravelly, chill-in-the-air-wow-the-foliage-is-peak-but-will-there-be-fried-clams?—baby sister!! (Probably not on the fried clams, but likely a s’more around the fire, and hopefully, at least 2 or 3 apple cider donuts coated with cinnamon sugar…we’ll see.) So I’ll be swapping, temporarily anyway, riding through the hot southeastern Massachusetts farmland, Buzzard’s Bay breezes, over the Bourne Bridge at sunrise, climbing the Shore Rd. to the final Wellfleet water stop (IYKYK), and the familiar torture of the Truro hills and rolling into P-town, clocking nearly two hundred miles. In return, I’ll get the peak autumn foliage, quiet mountain roads and trails, clipping into the pedals in “sweatah weathah,” and doing much fewer, slower, but steeper miles at the other end of the Commonwealth within a Macoun’s toss of the Empire State border.

Of course, all the good things about the Pan-Mass Challenge are on offer on Unpaved weekend, so hear me out…

Like the Pan-Mass Challenge, every dollar donated to a rider in PMC Unpaved goes directly to the amazing researchers, doctors, and caregivers at Dana Farber—that’s incredible, and it means that every single dollar of the $75 million raised by riders in 2024, regardless of which PMC event they participated in, made its way to Dana Farber—to be put to miraculous use by the researchers and caregivers there for one purpose—to offer comfort and cutting edge treatment to those with cancer, with the long-term goal of making all cancers a thing of the past.

AS A PROUD STURBRIDGE TO PROVINCETOWN RIDER IN 2024, I WAS HAPPY TO PARTICIPATE AS THE PAN-MASS CHALLENGE SURPASSED ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN FUNDRAISING FOR THE DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE OVER THE 45-YEAR HISTORY OF THE EVENT!!

If you know me, you know that my commitment to the cause of Dana Farber is unwavering and a huge part of my personal story. For years, I followed the PMC and riders who participated; the good work that DFCI does for cancer education, treatment, and research; and the amazing stories of patients who have been given precious added time with their families because of the tireless work of this organization.

As shared in my previous appeals, we all know too well how “Cancer never takes a year off.” And with the climate around funding for science and medical research in limbo, this year it’s especially important to bolster the funding available to organizations like Dana Farber and the Jimmy Fund.

In my 2024 appeal to PMC donors, I wrote about our dear family friend, Pat Gough, the consummate gentleman, Cubmaster, and Little League coach whom I had the pleasure of growing up with as a great influence in my life. The man whose firewood stacking, boot-lacing, and safety lectures, along with his loving reinforcement of “what’s right,” are lessons and examples I hold close to my heart. Pat passed away after a long journey with cancer in 2023, and his loss still greatly affects all who knew him, especially his wonderful family and wife, Janet.

Despite the years added to his life by the treatment he received resulting from research conducted at centers like Dana Farber, his family and all who loved him would all rather he be with us still. Recently, I attended his granddaughter’s high school graduation party—to say Pat would have be one beaming, proud Granda’, father, and father-in-law that day is an understatement, and his absence was surely palpable to all.

To make meaning of losses like Pat’s, we all do what we can, each in our specific individual way. We throw graduation parties so we can honor the future while fondly remembering the past; we make donations to causes which we, or the departed, hold dear or vital; or we just do what we believe is our calling—scale or attention being least important—to demonstrate our love and commitment to those who have gone before us, and for those of us left behind, and perhaps, if we’re lucky, to create change for the better.

This is Why I Ride.

Saddling up for my first Pan-Mass Challenge in 2017, I had no idea what a gift that the experience would grow to become in my life. Nearly a decade on, I’m consistently blown away by the stories that people share about their, or their loved ones’ journeys with cancer. While some of these stories have happy endings, many do not. If I could single out one current that electrifies these shared stories and brings them to light, it is the persistent sense of gratitude and appreciation of each journey, however painful and rocky the road it takes. I hear how small interactions along the way provide wisdom, solace, and comfort as the path through the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery winds and rises and falls and, sometimes, brings us home sooner than any of us would like.

So, I don’t PMC because of the bike, or the Cape, or the gear, the bragging rights, or even the promise of fried clams. I ride because the work that Dana Farber does gives us hope. And I do it for all those whose journeys with cancer have been touched by the hope and love and commitment and, sometimes, victory that DF offers us all.

I ride for my Fleetian homey, Ethan, gone way too soon, whose journey inspired me to ride back in 2017, and whose memory pushes me every year to keep showing up, however it looks. I hold his family in my heart this year.

I ride for Kathleen, whose grace, humor, quiet dignity, and faith during years of suffering reinforced that this project is so, so vital for me to participate.

Both these friends spent time at DF, and I know that the hope offered there was conveyed to them, sometimes in the darkest moments. I wish they were both here still—for a laugh, a hug, a pint, or one last record recommendation.

I’ll also ride for a brave little guy named Dante, who has spent more time at DF than a kiddo his age should. Now cancer-free, I know that the love and care that he and his family have received on their journey with the Jimmy Fund and Dana Farber have made all the difference in the world.

I’ll ride for Pop, Grandpa, Dot, Aunt Trish, and Uncle Ed.

I’ll ride for my compadre and good neighbor Al, a true optimist and a man as full of hope as they come.

For MaryLou and Marie.

And for MaryAnne, whose long journey came to an end this year.

For Laura.

For Brenda.

For Steve.

For Earl.

For Mike Carr. And for Jeff Carr.

For Jason. For Brian. For Nate. For Aaron. For Judy and her husband Ed.

And of course, for Pat G.

And for Mom, still hiking up the white capris to show off her battle wounds and preaching the gospel of SPF.

And I’ll ride for you and yours, because we all have a billion reasons to do this.

I can’t express how much of a gift and an honor it is to be a part of the Pan-Mass Challenge organization and its efforts, and to have all of you with me as I hit the trail for PMC Unpaved this October 4th. Thank you for your support—this year, and in the past. You’ve been so generous in your words and your contributions, and most of all, your encouragement and stalwart, vocal cheering!!!

I hope to raise $10,000 between now and PMC unpaved so please feel free to share any letter, email, post for those who may want to honor the past while showing hope for the future through the work of Dana Farber.

For more information, please check out my profile at: https://profile.unpaved.org/WQ0001

And Ethan—as always—buy Strummer another pint and shuck him another dozen Wellfleets. That handsome Irish fella behind you is Pat Gough, so make some room at the table and buy him one too.

I love you all. And thank you so much. See you out on the trail on October 4th!!!

Will Q.