Taking on a Pan-Mass Challenge

After four years on the sidelines, it is time to get in gear.

The last four years, I have worked at NECN on Pan-Mass Challenge weekend, helping make good things happen in our broadcasts and online while thousands of riders test their pedals and their meddle on the roads from Sturbridge to Provincetown, and all points in between. If you aren’t sure what the PMC is – in a nutshell, as it enters its 30th year, it is perhaps one of the most successful fundraising events in history. Last year, cyclists raised $35 million dollars for the Jimmy Fund and cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The riders come from all over the globe, now, and from all walks of life, and the stories they share with us each year as the ride approaches are awe-inspiring.

Or apparently, just inspirational.

They inspired me to sign up, and on August 1 and 2, you will find me planted in the saddle, raising money and awareness on the road from Sturbridge to Provincetown. 192 miles for those who are counting. Did you see the “raising money” part of that sentence? Just checking. It’s right there, between “saddle,” and “and”.

I just wanted to make sure.

Like thousands of other riders, I will be asking for your help to meet my fundraising goal of $4200, in a lousy economy where people are feeling the pinch of lost jobs and lower wages. I hope you will find it in your budget to give just as much as you comfortably can to me, or to any other rider this year. Because unfortunately, cancer doesn’t really have an economic cycle. It doesn’t have booms and busts. It just is. And it takes its toll on the old and young, on the rich and poor, on moms, dads and kids, on friends and neighbors, on doctors and teachers, on lawyers and mechanics – on every group you can think of.

Unless we find a way to cure it.

When it comes to cancer, I’m relatively fortunate. It hasn’t hit my family with nearly the force it has hit so many others (including my wife’s family – her father died of brain cancer, and her stepmother is a bladder cancer survivor). Over the next few months, you’ll gt to read my stories of training, of people I get to meet (or those we at NECN cover), and much more. I’m excited to take this Challenge on – both as a personal one, to ride, get in shape and make a difference, and as one to do what I can to help people much smarter than me find a cure.

So stay tuned. And click on the link on the right side of the page if I have inspired you – to donate.

(Featured post image from The SWellesley Report)